86 face charges of trying to topple Turkish government

A SHADOWY right-wing group goes on trial in Turkey on Monday on charges of trying to topple Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

Some 86 people, including retired army officers, the head of a small nationalist party and journalists, have been indicted in an investigation that has highlighted a power struggle between the ruling AK Party and the secularist establishment.

The case has also brought some elements of the armed forces under scrutiny although the military, which has unseated four elected governments in the last 50 years, denies any link.

Judges will convene in the Silivri prison outside Istanbul for the first hearing. The defendants are accused of planning assassinations and bombings to trigger a military intervention and the overthrow of the government.

The indictment targets the ultra-nationalist group called Ergenekon, which first came to light last year when a cache of explosives was discovered in a police raid on an Istanbul house.

Charges in the 2,500-page indictment include armed insurrection, aiding a terror group and possession of explosives. Most of the 100 or so detainees are open critics of the government.

The arrests of two senior retired generals in July has shattered taboos in Turkey, where the military have enjoyed virtually untouchable status. An additional indictment will be made for them. Several serving officers were also detained.

Political analysts say the case shows Turkey is becoming more transparent. Social and economic changes and reforms inspired by the EU, which Turkey hopes to join, mean the Turkish state is held more accountable.

“The case has been politicised and that could have undermined its potential ramifications, but there is no question that there is a fundamental change operating in Turkey,” said Fadi Hakura, from the London-based Chatham House think tank.

“The political and social influence of the military has been diluted and its status is being questioned,” said Hakura.

Turkish courts are now the battlefield of a class conflict between the AK Party, whose roots are in political Islam, and the secularist elite that has ruled much of modern Turkey.