Electoral campaign kicked off in Turkey
Retired Gen. Cetin Dogan, the former head of the 1st Army, and seven other suspects in the Sledgehammer coup case were arrested after surrendering to Istanbul police on Monday.
The Istanbul 10th High Criminal Court last week ruled to put 163 retired and active duty members of the military -- including former top commanders -- behind bars on coup charges as part of an ongoing case into the Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan, devised in 2003 to unseat the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government. Sledgehammer is a subversive plot allegedly prepared by a clique inside the military that included plans to crash jets and bomb large mosques at busy prayer hours to undermine the AK Party with the hope of eventually overthrowing it.