Retired General Cevik Bir reacted that his statement that “We shall not carry out any coup even if EU denied a date to us” was reported as if he spoke on behalf of the army. Bir told Italian La Reppublica daily that he had not said anything about EU’s denying a negotiating date to Turkey.

He said “I spoke only on my behalf. I said that there will be no coup even if negotiations do not begin. We all got a lesson from our experiences.