President, PM and Head of Army Meet for Three-Hour Summit

Today (25 February) at around 11 am, President Abdullah Gül met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ.

"Problems will be solved by the law"

Towards the end of their press statement around three hours later, they said:

"During the meeting, the issues discussed in public in the last few days were dealt with in detail. In this context it was emphasised that our citizens should feel sure that the current problems will be solved within a constitutional and legal framework and that everyone should act responsibly at this time in order not to damage our institutions."

On 23 February, Başbuğ had called generals and admirals to a meeting after professional soldiers had been taken into custody as part of the investigation into the alleged "sledgehammer" coup attempt.

He had announced the meeting to the public with a terse statement, saying that the army members had gathered "to evaluate the serious situation created by the investigation run by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecution."

Wave of detentions on Monday

On 22 February, 17 retired generals, four active admirals, 27 commissioned officers and one noncommissioned officer were taken into custody as part of the investigation.

Of these 49, twenty have been arrested, fifteen of them soldiers on active duty.

Today, the questioning of retired General İbrahim Fırtına, the former air force chief, and retired General Ergin Saygun, the retired 1st Army Commander, by the prosecution at the Istanbul High Criminal Court was completed.

The questioning of retired Admiral Özden Örnek, former navy commander, began today as well. Retired General Çetin Doğan, also a former 1st Army Commander, is to be questioned tomorrow. (TK/EÖ/AG)