http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE66I4J020100719
Turkish court indicts 196 over suspected coup plot Mon Jul 19, 2010 6:06pm GMT <http://af.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=AFTRE66I4J020100719> Print | <javascript:singlePageView();> Single Page [ <javascript:sizeDown();> -] <javascript:resetCurrentsize();> Text [ <javascript:sizeUp();> +] ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court indicted 196 people on Monday, among them retired military commanders, over an alleged plot to overthrow the government which has its roots in political Islam, state-run Anatolian news agency said. Revelations this year of an alleged 2003 plot codenamed "Sledgehammer" shocked Turkey and aggravated simmering tensions between the government and the secularist armed forces, as scores of retired and serving military officers were arrested. According to Turkish media the plot was said to involve bombing historic mosques and provoking Greece into shooting down a Turkish war plane to create a war-like situation and destabilise the AK Party government, in power since 2002. Among those named in the indictment are Cetin Dogan, former head of Turkey's prestigious First Army, and retired air force commander Ibrahim Firtina, both of whom were first arrested early this year. The indictment, prepared by Istanbul prosecutors, included calls for jail sentences of 15 to 20 years for the alleged perpetrators, Anatolian said. No date has been set for a trial. Turkey's military, the second largest in NATO, has overthrown three governments since 1960 and pressured Turkey's first Islamist-led government into resignation in 1997. The military has said there was no conspiracy and operation "Sledgehammer" was merely a war game exercise presented at a seminar. The arrests of former military top brass highlight a major social transition in EU-membership candidate Turkey, as power shifts from traditional secular elites such as the armed forces and judiciary to a new political class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
