[caption id="attachment_114614" align="alignleft" width="208"] Backdropped by a picture of Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Sunday. — AP[/caption]ISTANBUL — Dozens of officers and soldiers have gone on trial in Istanbul for their alleged role in the failed military coup in July. The 28 officers and 34 privates allegedly seized control of Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen Airport on the night of the attempt. They are accused of crimes against the state and face life terms in prison if convicted. Some of the defendants have denied the charges. insisting they were led to believe they were taking part in a drill. Monday's trial is the first in Istanbul for military officers. Twenty-nine police are already on trial for allegedly failing to protect the president. Turkey also dismissed a deputy head of the state fund which runs seized companies and shut down two local television stations in the latest decrees issued on Monday under emergency rule, imposed in the wake of last July's failed coup. The Official Gazette said Zulfukar Sukru Kanberoglu of the TMSF fund was one of 367 people dismissed from state institutions under the latest four decrees, which also reinstated 124 civil servants. It said the people were dismissed for being members of, or having links to, terror groups or groups which act against national security. Broadcaster Haberturk said on Saturday prosecutors had issued arrest warrants for more than 400 people, including soldiers and security officers, in 48 provinces across the country following July's failed coup. They were being sought on suspicion of using Bylock, an encrypted smartphone messaging app that the government says was used by the network of Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of orchestrating the attempted coup, Haberturk reported. Gulen, a US-based cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied the charge and condemned the coup. In a post-coup crackdown, Turkey has jailed some 40,000 people pending trial and has suspended or dismissed more than 100,000 from the military, judiciary and public services. More than 240 people were killed in the July 15 attempted putsch, in which soldiers commandeered tanks and fighter jets in a bid to seize power.
