Patriotic Party leader claims US behind retired admirals' declaration on Montreux Convention
Patriotic Party leader Doğu Perinçek has claimed that the United States was behind the retired admirals' declaration on the Montreux Convention. “The implication of a coup has no value. They do not have the power to stage a coup. The period of the United States is over,” Perinçek said.
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Patriotic Party (“Vatan Partisi”) chair Doğu Perinçek has claimed that the United States was behind the Turkish retired admirals' declaration on the Montreux Convention.
Perinçek's comments came after the government accused the 104 retired admirals of suggesting a coup in their April 3 declaration.
“The implication of a coup has no value. They do not have the power to stage a coup. The period of the United States is over,” Perinçek said during a TV program hosted on Haber Global on April 4.
The Patriotic Party leader has also linked the declaration to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). “It is so obvious that this declaration stems from across the Atlantic Ocean. It is so obvious. Turkish soldiers are fighting with the PKK, and there is not a single sentence about the struggle against terrorism in the declaration. Indirectly, that declaration is on the same side with the PKK,” he said.
Meanwhile, Perinçek's nephew Yunus Soner, also a member of the Patriotic Party, released a statement with regards to the incident, saying that the detention of 10 retired admirals for the relevant declaration is “an American operation.”
“The detention of admirals who are defending the Montreux is an American operation. But you will neither be able to drag the Turkish military nor Turkish nation into a war in the Black Sea,” Soner wrote on Twitter.
On April 5, Turkish police detained 10 retired admirals for signing a statement in support of the 85-year-old maritime accord, accusing them of conspiring against the constitutional order.
Officials said their declaration on the Montreux Convention was a direct challenge to civilian government and evoked past army interventions.
The retired military personnel had voiced concern over Montreux - which they said was strategically important for Turkey's maritime security - given President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's authority to withdraw from such pacts, and his move last month to ditch an international accord meant to prevent violence against women, the Istanbul Convention.
The statement came as the government moves forward with plans to construct Kanal Istanbul, a massive canal connecting the Black Sea north of Istanbul to the Sea of Marmara to the south, parallel to the Bosphorus strait.