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Turkish police arrest 49 military officers over suspected coup plot

This article is more than 14 years old
Ex-deputy chief of army, retired air force chief and chief of navy among those accused of plot to overthrow Islamist government

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. Hurriyet reported on its website that 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 destabilisation 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 politicising 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," he said. "This is a power struggle between two authoritarian forces. The agenda behind Ergenekon is to reduce the power of the military."

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