ISTANBUL - In widespread sweeps, dozens of prominent personalities have been
detained in Turkey - among them retired generals, active officers, academics
and journalists - on suspicion of attempting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted
government in the "Ergenekon" affair.
The opposition is crying foul, and claims the arrests are a move to stifle
dissent and revenge for a 2008 court case that sought to ban the ruling party
for anti-secular activities.
Turkey, the first Muslim country aspiring for European Union (EU) membership,
appears still saddled with the types of coups and
coup plots of which the EU has long been free.
The country has had four of its elected governments booted out by the military
since the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1950. The army each time has
intervened against perceived Islamic militancy to protect the secular order it
considers its mission to preserve.
And there may still be plots to overturn the administration of the country's
Islamic-inspired government led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the new allegations.
Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said the detentions were aimed at ridding the
country of clandestine gangs and to make it more democratic. "Turkey is
cleansing its intestines," he said.
What is at stake in "the trial of the century" of the detained persons could
decide the future of a major member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) caught in a dogfight between entrenched secular forces and political
Islam with wide popular support.
"The case certainly has political overtones," Jerome Bastion, an Istanbul-based
French author and analyst of Turkish politics told Inter Press Service. "There
also are legal grounds for accusations, but the way the accused were detained
creates doubts." Some were hauled in during post-midnight raids at their homes.
Now backing the prosecution, the ruling party was at the receiving end last
year when a different set of prosecutors asked for it to be banned for being a
hotbed of Islamist agitation. In a cliff-hanger trial, the 11-member
Constitutional Court condemned the party as charged but shied away by a single
vote from closing it down.
The ruling party called that trial an attempt by secular prosecutors to stage a
"judicial coup" against a party that had come to power with a massive 47% of
the vote. Now, it is the reverse. The party in power leads the prosecution, and
the secular opponents are calling this a witchhunt.
Those arrested now "have one thing in common: their enmity to AKP", says Ahmet
Yalvac, a restaurant owner in Istanbul. "I am not sure if innocent ones are not
being taken in just because of their views."
The 100 or so who stand accused are so diverse that doubts are being raised
whether they knew each other, and how they could have worked to topple the
government. The mastermind has yet to be found, if there ever was one.
The indictment says the plotters did not plan direct moves to take control of
the government, but conspired to create internal chaos through targeted
assassinations and bombings that would entice the military to take over once
again.
As the result of a probe linked to the coup allegations, police found 30 hand
grenades, nine smoke bombs and hundreds of G-3 rifle bullets in the garden of a
deserted house in an Ankara suburb, reported Reuters.
Ergenekon, a legend that describes how Turks came into existence, is the
name the media have given to the alleged clandestine, ultra-nationalist gang in
Turkey which the government claims conspired with members of the country's
military and security forces to overthrow the government.
The top military brass, which still sees itself as protector against both
external and internal threats to the established secular order, has not taken
sides openly so far. But it is irked. Some senior officers and a slew of
retired generals are among those detained. The military has expressed its
sympathy with arrested generals through courtesy visits to them in jails.
Senior commanders met urgently last week, and Chief of General Staff General
Ilter Basbug held an unscheduled meeting with Erdogan and President Abdullah
Gul, both founders of the AKP.
The military, subject only to nominal civilian authority, had openly opposed
Gul's ascendancy to presidency. It occasionally expresses views differing from
the government.
Some of the retired military leaders charged are the ones who were active in
driving an Islamist-led coalition from power in a "coup-by-communique" in 1997
- when the army threatened to step in unless the government stepped down. The
government collapsed.
This time the traditional secular parties are weak, and secular opposition to
the ruling party is being led by the media, academics and not least the
military, which never stops watching and, when it judges necessary, marches in.
The country trying to integrate itself into the EU has produced no more coups
yet, but it is not short of reports of coup plots.
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