"ERGENEKON" – A TRIAL THAT WILL DEFINE TURKEY
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.07.2009 12:25 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The trials of the alleged coup plotters in Turkey
could well prove a defining moment in the Turkey’s modern history,
the Independent says in an editorial article.
The 142 defendants in the two cases – the second of which started
yesterday – include retired generals, journalists and academics. All
are said to be members of the shadowy Ergenekonn etwork of
ultra-nationalists widely believed to have been behind a series of
assassinations and disappearances in the last decade and now accused of
planning to overthrow the elected government of the Islamist AK Party.
To many, a successful prosecution of these figures would be a triumph
of the democratic state against the power of the military. To others
– including some pro-Western liberals – the military, for all their
faults, have been the guarantors of the secular constitution.
"It’s a fight that the rest of the world can only look on from
the outside, with the hope that the AK Party proves to be far less
determined in its religious designs than its opponents believe. For
one thing is certain. Turkey has suffered too long from military
intervention in its political affairs. If it is to be truly modern,
it has to make the division clear and absolute," the article says.
From: Baghdasarian