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Turkish army plot trial to revive tensions

15 December 2010 18:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Nearly 200 Turkish military officers, retired and serving, go on trial on Thursday accused of trying to undermine the government in a case that risks reviving tension with the secularist armed forces, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The alleged plot, dubbed "Operation Sledgehammer," harks back to 2003 and involved plans to bomb historic mosques and provoke conflict with Greece to destabilize the AK Party government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and open the way for military intervention.
The trial starts a little over 6 months before a general election that some political analysts foresee bringing to the fore deep divisions within Turkey.
Erdogan, who is popular among conservative Muslims, is widely expected to win a third consecutive term, and secularists see themselves as increasingly embattled, though the AK Party denies crimping lifestyles in any way.
The Sledgehammer case reflects a lingering mistrust between the military and a ruling party that critics say retains Islamist leanings, though the AK Party casts itself as a Muslim version of Europe’s Christian Democrat parties.
Using reforms meant to make Turkey fit for membership of the European Union, Erdogan’s government has reduced the clout of an army that has toppled four civilian governments since 1960.
The AKP’s policies also created an economic transformation that led to a shift in power away from old elites made up of generals, judges and educators devoted to the secular principles of the republic’s founder, Kemal Ataturk.
FRESH EVIDENCE, CHANGE OF JUDGES
A wave of detentions during the first phase of investigations in Sledgehammer earlier this year shocked Turks unused to seeing top brass being escorted to court.
In another demonstration of the civilians’ ascendancy, ministers later suspended three generals accused of involvement in the alleged plot.
The accusations against 196 defendants, who include former top commanders, center on a seminar where ways to undermine the government were discussed. Prosecutors are demanding up to 20 years imprisonment for high-ranking officers.
The defendants deny any conspiracy and say scenarios discussed at a seminar were merely a war game exercise.
Commentators foresaw problems for NATO’s second biggest army, unless politicians and generals contain the fall-out.
"It is critical also because three-quarters of the accused are still on duty, and if the judges find it necessary to issue arrest warrants, the army apparatus may suffer seriously," said Yavuz Baydar, columnist for the daily Today’s Zaman.
Interest in the case was reawakened this week by a police raid on a naval base, which local media reports say led to the confiscation of documents that will be used as evidence.