Turkey Tries 47 Ex-Soldiers in Erdogan Assassination Plot
"For the first time in our history, it is discussed
that a commander in chief, a president, was subject to an assassination attempt by Turkish Army members," Mr. Aydin told reporters outside the chamber of commerce, the semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported.
An earlier version of this article misstated the location where Huseyin Aydin said, "For the first time in our history, it is discussed
that a commander in chief, a president, was subject to an assassination attempt by Turkish Army members." He was speaking to reporters outside the chamber of commerce, not at the hearing.
20, 2017
IZMIR, Turkey — Dozens of former Turkish soldiers were brought to trial on Monday on charges of trying to kill
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a coup attempt in July, the latest in a series of trials in the plot.
Hundreds of rebel soldiers accused of involvement in the coup attempt have been tried in several cases across Turkey in recent months,
but this is the first trial to focus on the attempted assassination of Mr. Erdogan.
Turkey has blamed followers of Fethullah Gulen, an American-based cleric and former ally of Mr. Erdogan, for the coup attempt.
In court on Monday, one of the defendants, Gokhan Sonmezates, acknowledged involvement in the operation but denied
that he or the others were trying to kill the president or that they had connections to Mr. Gulen, Reuters reported.
Prosecutors in Mugla, a city in the southwest, sought life sentences for 47 former soldiers who officials
say tried to assassinate Mr. Erdogan on July 15 during his vacation on the Mediterranean coast.
