Turkish Football Fans Accused of Plotting Coup!

Local Editor

A group of Turkish football fans have been charged with trying to overthrow their government during mass street protests in 2013, in a case dismissed as a farce by opposition MPs and defense lawyers.

Prosecutors said they were seeking life sentences for 35 people, most of them members of a supporters' club of major Istanbul team Besiktas, according to an indictment accepted by a court late on Thursday.

They were accused of helping organize the wave of anti-government demonstrations which erupted in Istanbul's Taksim square in May last year and grew into a major challenge to then-Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Since quelling the demonstrations last summer, Erdogan has fought off corruption investigations targeting his inner circle that he described as a bid oust him. His ruling AK Party went on to win local elections in March before he won a presidential election in August.
Opposition MPs have accused the government of launching an authoritarian crackdown on anti-government activists and on police officers, judges and prosecutors involved in the corruption inquiries.

Officials from the main opposition CHP held a meeting with the charged Carsi members on Friday in the central Besiktas district from which the supporter's group takes its name.
"If a jurist believes that a club's fans could stage a coup in a country, then we must all see what a state our legal system is in," party general secretary Gursel Tekin told reporters.
Carsi means market place, referring to the area where fans traditionally gather before matches. The district, where anti-government sentiment is strong, is near Taksim and the location of prime ministerial offices on the banks of the Bosphorus.
In last year's demonstrations those offices became a focus of anger for protesters who clashed repeatedly with riot police who fired tear gas and water cannon to counter what prosecutors said was an attempt to occupy the buildings.
Prosecutors said phone calls and social media showed the group organized protests and tried to liken them to the "Arab Spring" uprisings raging across the Middle East.

The indictment, charging the fans with "attempting to overthrow the government", "forming a gang" and "damaging public property", said a search of one defendants' home revealed a gun and an anti-aircraft rocket.

The court agreed to take on the case and said the trial would start on Dec. 16.
The unrest began as a peaceful protest against the demolition of a park at Taksim but spread nationwide after a brutal police crackdown. Prosecutors have since launched a series of court cases against those involved.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team