Turkey coup plot

[Fighter488]

Plot thickens in Turkey 'coup plan' ​

By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Istanbul


The case began with revelations from Ozden Ornek's laptop
The charges filed against 20 senior military officers in Turkey this week mark the most serious development to date in a series of alleged plots against the government by members of the armed forces.

It all started with Nokta ("Point"), a small weekly news magazine.

In its edition published on 29 March 2007, it ran details of diaries found on the laptop computer of retired Admiral Ozden Ornek, former commander of the Turkish Navy.

In them the admiral allegedly wrote of various action plans, which he purportedly discussed with many of his military colleagues, intended to undermine the government led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Shortly after this, Nokta's offices were raided by the police at the request of a military prosecutor, and the magazine was closed down, never to reopen.

Three months later a large quantity of grenades and explosives were discovered by police hidden in the roof of a house in Istanbul.

Over the following months, these two cases were tied by state prosecutors into a much larger conspiracy they called Ergenekon.

Bogged down

Around 200 people, including some senior military personnel, were charged with being members of a massive terrorist conspiracy in three indictments that ran to a total of 4,364 pages.

The first trials began in began in October 2008.

But after the initial drama of military men being brought before civilian courts on such spectacular charges, the Ergenekon investigations have become bogged down.

HOW 'COUP PLOTS' EMERGED
June 2007: Cache of explosives discovered; ex-soldiers detained
July 2008: 20 arrested, including two ex-generals and a senior journalist, for "planning political disturbances and trying to organise a coup"
July 2008: Governing AK Party narrowly escapes court ban
October 2008: 86 go on trial charged with "Ergenekon" coup plot
July 2009: 56 in dock as second trial opens
Jan 2010: Taraf newspaper reports 2003 "Sledgehammer" plot to provoke coup
Feb 2010: More than 40 officers arrested over "Sledgehammer"; 20 charged
Dozens of hearings have produced little hard evidence of a conspiracy.

The indictments are sometimes contradictory and contain very sweeping allegations.

And they are based on testimony from some decidedly questionable sources.

Sceptics have accused the government of exploiting Ergenekon to intimidate its opponents.

So are these latest charges against Turkish military personnel just more of the same?

Like Ergenekon, Operation Sledgehammer has come to light through documents leaked to the media - in this case an entire suitcase-full, given to the campaigning newspaper Taraf.

But these give details of a much more specific plot.

Dated from November 2002, shortly after the AKP won its first, landslide election victory, they include proposals for a number of actions intended to create the conditions for military intervention, including bombing two mosques in Istanbul and "arranging" for a Turkish air force jet to be shot down in a clash with Greece - all to create the conditions for military intervention.

Deep polarisation

The documents list names, ranks and serial numbers of all the military personnel tasked with carrying out the actions, as well as listing details of thousands of bureaucrats and journalists likely to be either sympathetic or hostile to a military takeover.

They are approved by a signature alleged to be that of then top army commander, Gen Cetin Dogan.


Recent accusations have been leaked to Taraf
The number, and seniority, of the military suspects in this case is unprecedented.

If prosecutors can show that the documents are genuine, and can link them to a seminar in March 2003 attended by much of the military top brass, details of which have also been leaked to Taraf, the once unimpeachable prestige of the armed forces would suffer far worse damage than it has from Ergenekon.

But the deep political polarisation in Turkish society will inevitably colour how people respond to these most recent allegations.

The military's long history of coups and dirty tricks will persuade many to believe the accusations.

Yet the way they came to light - leaked, like so many other plots, to a single newspaper, their origin unknown - will persuade others that they are intended to discredit the armed forces, seen by many as the last defence of Turkey's secular way of life.

Certainly questions hang over the judiciary's ability to bring these investigations to a credible conclusion.

The draconian punishments meted out by judges here for light offences have already led the European Union to demand wholesale reform of the criminal justice system.

Verdicts reached by Turkey's highest courts are often viewed as overtly political, and it is no secret that the judiciary is as riven by competing political allegiances as the rest of the country.


BBC News - Plot thickens in Turkey 'coup plan'

 

[Fighter488]

Turkey's rift deepens with latest military arrests​

Mon Mar 1, 2010 11:43am IST
By Alexandra Hudson

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's crackdown on military officers accused of conspiring to topple a government they see fostering Islamist ambitions brings the country to a historic juncture and raises the prospect of deep social division.

The inroad into military power reached a new level at the weekend when two senior retired generals, both highly revered in the high command, were charged with plotting a coup.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan calls the dozens of arrests and indictments a painful, necessary process promoting democracy in the European Union membership candidate.

The army, traditionally guardian of secular democracy in the face of a flawed and corrupt political culture, can no longer exist beyond judicial and government control, officials argue.

Trials now loom for more than 30 officers charged last week over a supposed 2003 plot to create chaos, undermine the government and trigger a military intervention.

"We are really going through a historic period," said Cengiz Aktar, a leading Turkish columnist and author.

"The authority of the army has never before been challenged in this way in this country. The Armed Forces were non-accountable for what they said, what they did. For the first time they are being held to account."

Concerns have risen however that Turkey's secularist establishment, the higher judiciary and armed forces, will not countenance any further loss of power to a new political class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Erdogan's AK party.

Most Turks today believe the generals would not dare directly challenge the AK party, which has a huge parliamentary majority, and destroy newfound confidence in democracy.
But there are also those deeply suspicious of the AK Party, fearing it has an Islamist agenda which it will be allowed to push through unopposed if the army and judiciary are weakened.


THE POST-MODERN COUP

The Chief of General Staff General Ilker Basbug has called coups a thing of the past but has also warned that "military patience has its limits".

In 1997 the generals spearheaded a campaign of political pressure that forced Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, a mentor of Erdogan, to step down -- an operation dubbed the "post-modern coup", distinguishing it from armed overthrows of the past.

In 2007, the army intervened in presidential elections with a statement on its website criticising the government, the "e-coup"; but the AK leadership gave notice then of a tougher line on the military by responding with its own rebuttal.

The judiciary, or elements of it, has formed a second focus of resistance to AK, elected in 2002 with a landslide majority furnished by the collapse of established secular parties tainted by accusations of corruption and misrule.

There is speculation of a new bid by prosecutors to ban the party, which narrowly survived a 2008 case to close it for anti-secular activities.

Turkey's army, in no small measure, mirrors the country.
National service is compulsory, army bases are highly visible in the centre of cities, not least Ankara and Istanbul, and nearly all Turkish men will at some point don a uniform.

Any traumatic change in the role and status of the military arguably has ramifications for the entire social structure.

"There has been an ongoing struggle between both sides which has been in the open since 2007 although it was going on behind the scenes before then," said Hugh Pope of the International Crisis Group think-tank.

"The current wave of detentions has taken in some of the most highly-educated officers.. and some who until recently had very high-profile jobs."

The two charged on Friday night were retired First Army chief general Cetin Dogan, associated with the 1997 "post-modern coup", and lieutenant-general Engin Alan, former special forces commander involved in the 1999 operation to capture Kurdish rebel Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya and bring him back to Turkey.


LINES OF COMMUNICATION

The bolder the authorities' actions in detaining high-level suspects, including a related investigation into an alleged ultra-nationalist group accused of plotting a coup, the louder the cries by opponents that the probe is politically motivated.

Certainly, some of the arrests have been heavy handed and colourful detail of the allegations has been in no short supply. Analysts see questions in the public mind, also reflected in some newspapers, about the grounding of the accusations.
More than 200 people including military officers, lawyers and politicians have been arrested in the investigation of the "Ergenekon" group, accused of conspiring to sow chaos and panic so that citizens would cry out to the army to restore order.

"The government has a responsibility to step in and reduce the polarisation. Families are being split by it, every social group is now turning into a pro- and anti- camp," said Pope.

Last Thursday the prime minister, president and armed forces chief met to try to defuse the crisis, but a day later a second wave of detentions followed. Erdogan, who denies any Islamist ambitions, and General Basbug met again on Sunday.

Some analysts say the fact lines of communication are still open between the two is a sign relations will never again deteriorate to the lows of past decades.

The military has overthrown four governments in Turkey in the past 50 years. But its 2007 "e-coup" backfired, fueling an increase in support for the AK Party.

So far the effect of the political turmoil on markets has been measured. The stock market fell some 7 percent during the week and the lira lost 2.6 percent to the dollar. Bonds weakened only slightly and credit default swaps were little affected.

Protracted tension would pile pressure on markets.

"Neither side should be dragging each other into this, just at a time when Turkey was about to receive investment grade ratings for its bonds, or when it has vital work to do to revive its EU membership process," said Pope.

"The two sides have to live with each other, neither side can win this," he added


Turkey's rift deepens with latest military arrests | World | Reuters

 

[EjazR]

I resent the description of the current ruling part AKP or Justice and Development party as "Islamist" because they have never stated that their mandate is to grab political power on a religious platform and implement "Islamic laws" top down.

They have committed themselves to the constitution of Turkey and have declared the commitment to Secularism numerous times.

Just because they consists of devout workers who focus on internal party does not make them followers of a political Islam ideology.

Their platform as their name suggest is justice and development and that includes equal rights to practice your religious beliefs, not their denial.