DOZENS OF OFFICERS DETAINED IN TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.02.2010 11:10 GMT+04:00

PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey’s once all-powerful military is facing the
biggest challenge to its authority in decades after 49 senior officers
were detained on accusations of plotting to topple the country’s
Islamist-rooted government in a violent coup.

A former deputy chief of the army, a retired air force chief, the
chief of the navy and several generals and admirals were among those
detained by police in a sweep carried out in eight Turkish cities. The
round-up included 17 retired generals, four serving admirals and 27
lower-ranking officers.

The detentions dramatically raised the ante in a rumbling power
struggling between the Justice and Development party (AKP) government
and the armed forces, and prompted the army chief of staff, General
Ilker Basbug, to call off a trip to Egypt.

They represented the boldest assault yet on the military’s elevated
status by prosecutors, who have been investigating alleged conspiracies
by secularists to unseat the AKP for more than two years.

The army, which has dispatched four governments in the past 50 years,
was once considered all but untouchable in its role as custodian of
Turkey’s secular state.

Several high-ranking officers, including retired generals, are
already being tried on accusations of belonging to a movement known
as Ergenekon, which is said to have plotted a military coup by stoking
civil unrest. Journalists, academics, lawyers and politicians are also
accused of being part of Ergenekon, which the government has depicted
as a cabal of secular elitists determined to maintain their privileges.

Although there was no official explanation, the latest arrests appeared
to stem from a separate alleged coup plot, known as Sledgehammer,
revealed by a Turkish newspaper, Taraf, last month.

According to testimony in 5,000 pages of stolen army documents, the
plan – dating from 2003 – envisaged a putsch against the AKP after a
campaign of destabilization involving bombing mosques and provoking
a war with Greece. The army has denied the documents represented a
coup plot and instead described them as a "scenario".

On a visit to Spain Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
refused to comment on the latest developments, saying: "It would not
be appropriate for me to talk about an issue that is already handled
by the judiciary."

But critics will depict the detentions as part of a witch-hunt by the
AKP aimed at politicizing the judiciary, undermining the military
and weakening the secular constitution handed down by Ataturk, the
founder of modern Turkey.

The arrests follow a row over the detention last week of the
chief prosecutor of the north-eastern province of Erzincan, Ilhan
Cilhaner, on charges of belonging to Ergenekon after he had ordered
an investigation of an Islamist group. Cilhaner’s arrest prompted
the strongly pro-secularist Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors
to strip the powers of the special prosecutor who had ordered it.

The detentions also followed a ruling last month by Turkey’s highest
court, the constitutional court, overturning government legislation
that would have allowed serving military officers to be tried in
civilian courts, rather than military tribunals as at present.

Analysts suggested that the arrests were aimed at trying officers
before the constitutional court’s ruling could be recorded in the
official gazette, when it would become effective.

Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based specialist on Turkish military
affairs, said the arrests could trigger a major crisis. "The
prosecutors have four days to turn these detentions into formal
arrests and if they do that, there is no way the army will sit back
and not respond. This is a power struggle between two authoritarian
forces. The agenda behind Ergenekon is to reduce the power of the
military," he said, guardian.co.uk reported.