Turkey arrests military officers over espioge charges

Ankara, November 30: Turkish authorities have arrested two military generals and a retired colonel on charges of “espioge, attempted coup and establishing and running an armed terrorist organisation”, the media reported on Monday. The arrests were carried out on Sunday night on the orders of Istanbul Prosecution; the same body that last week ordered the detention of jourlists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul on similar charges, EFE news reported. Turkish generals Ibrahim Aydin and Hamza Celepoglu and retired Colonel Burhanettin Cihangiroglu are being tried for stopping and searching trucks, which were supposedly carrying weapons smuggled to militias in Syria. Dundar and Gul were arrested for publishing documents last May about the security search of these vehicles in January 2014. The government rejected these reports, considering them as a “betrayal” and emphasised that the trucks were carrying humanitarian aid to Turkmen communities in Syria. (IANS)