Turkey cracking down on opposition in the army
Tayyip Erdogan and Abdullah Gul continue to make sure that things will go their way in Turkey, even arresting military officials they accuse of plotting coups, though they did release a few of them:
ISTANBUL—President Abdullah Gül of Turkey sought to assuage fears of political instability Thursday, pledging that a growing confrontation with the country's military would be resolved within the constitution.Don't bet on any tensions being resolved. Sadly, if there was no opposition here, then that suggests things are changing, for the worse.
Mr. Gül issued his statement after a rare three-hour, three-way meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and army chief Ilker Basbug. Hours later, the two most senior of some 50 military officers detained Monday on charges of plotting a coup—a former chief of the air force and of the navy—were released without charge.
But it was far from clear that the meeting would resolve tensions. Eight current and former officers were formally charged Thursday with having plotted a coup in 2003, and have been jailed pending trial. That brought the total charged to date to 20, including five admirals and three generals.
The arrests and lack of retaliation from Turkey's once-untouchable military have underlined just how dramatically the country has changed in recent years, analysts say. As recently as 1997, the army helped to push a government out of power—for the fourth time since 1960. Criminal charges were pursued in military, not civilian courts. Now, for the first time, an elected government and civilian prosecutors appear to have the upper hand.
But Monday's arrests also underscored the deepening power struggle between the Islamic leaning Justice and Development party, or AKP, and the traditional secular elite, above all the military, which has long seen itself as the guardian of Turkey's secular order. A similar battle is being fought out within the judiciary, a body that is charged with defending Turkey's secular constitution and that has become starkly split between pro- and anti-government justices and prosecutors.
Labels: islam, military, political corruption, turkey
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