’No document found provoking the coup’
Güncelleme Tarihi:
ANKARA - The U.S. has searched archive records in Ankara and Washington and could not find any documents allegedly urging the Turkish military to act against the coalition government of the now-defunct Welfare Party, or RP in the 1990s, said an embassy spokesperson, yesterday.
Former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan claimed Wednesday night that the U.S. had pressured the Turkish military to take action against his conservative coalition government of the RP and True Path Party, or DYP.
Talking to the private TV channel Star, Erbakan was asked a question about the process whereby his government had to step down due to pressure from the military, an event that has come to be known as the "Feb. 28 process." Erbakan read from a one-page document dated October 1996 and allegedly sent from the U.S. Secretary of State to the American embassy "Turkey has to remain the key strategic partner of the U.S. and our success to keep Turkey in this position will directly affect our national interest. [The] Turkish Army should be pushed for action to spend more effort to this end."
"He [Erbakan] waved about a Turkish translation which was supposed to be a cable from the U.S. State Department but it was a Turkish version and based on the information that was on the Turkish version, we have searched our archives and we couldn't find this document or any similar document," the embassy spokesperson told Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. "We would be delighted if we could see the original English version."
Erbakan said the document was obtained after the Feb. 28 process. In addition to the embassy, the document is claimed to have been sent to the U.S. embassies in Athens, Beirut, Geneva, Moscow and Sofia as well as the American missions in NATO and the UN.