Turkey, 2010 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 22 February 2010, corresponding to the mass arrests in the Sledgehammer (Balyoz) case in Turkey. Beginning on 21 and 22 February 2010, prosecutors carried out a nationwide sweep and detained around 49 current and retired military officers, including admirals, generals, and colonels, over an alleged coup plot codenamed Sledgehammer. The plan was said to have been devised at a 2003 military seminar by secularist officers seeking to overthrow the government of the Justice and Development Party led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, through staged provocations such as bombing mosques and provoking Greece into shooting down a Turkish jet, so as to justify a military intervention.
The alleged plot had surfaced in January 2010 when digital documents were given to the Taraf newspaper. Hundreds were eventually charged, and in September 2012 more than three hundred were convicted, but the case later collapsed when forensic analysis showed the key evidence had been fabricated, with documents written in software unavailable in 2003 and references to entities that did not exist then; the Constitutional Court ordered a retrial in 2014 that led to acquittals. The 22 February 2010 coding matches the start of the mass arrests.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
64002222010
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Erdogan's government prosecuted the alleged plotters, though the evidence was later found fabricated.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
The Times
The Christian Science Monitor
Asia News Monitor
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →