Two surviving leaders of Turkey’s 1980 coup have been handed life sentences by an Ankara court.<br /><br /> General Kenan Evren (97) and General Tahsin Sahinkaya (89) are the first officers to be tried for a coup in Turkey.<br /><br /> Neither men were in court due to ill health.<br /><br /> Both had been charged with setting the stage for the 1980 army intervention, then conducting the coup. <br /><br /> Evren has never expressed regret for the wave of executions and torture which followed.<br /><br /> Families of victims held a rally outside the courtroom saying justice had finally been served. <br /><br /> A constitutional clause granting the military immunity from prosecution was overturned in 2010 referendum paving the way for Wednesday’s sentencing.<br /><br /> Under General Evren who was also president until 1989, 50 people were executed, some 600,000 were arrested and many disappeared.<br /><br /> Evren justified it by saying it saved the country from descending into anarchy after violent clashes between political extremists.<br /><br /> The period came to symbolise the military’s decades-long dominance over Turkish politics.<br /><br /> Since then the army has been excluded from state bodies that had exerted influence on politic.<br /><br /> The 1980 military intervention was the last and bloodiest of Turkey’s coups. The others took place in 1960 and 1971. <br /><br /> In 1997 the army was also involved in forcing out a coalition government.
