Clashes Erupt After Turkey Trial Verdicts

Police disperse protesters gathered around courthouse as ex-army chief and many others sentenced in conspiracy trial.

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Turkey Court Sentences 'Ergenekon Coup Plotters'

BBC: A court in Turkey has been delivering its verdicts in a long-running trial of more than 270 people accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

Prison sentences of up to 47 years have been handed out to some of those accused in the "Ergenekon" plot, while 21 people have been acquitted.

Verdicts are being read out one by one at the specially constructed courtroom.

Among those on trial is a former army chief, as well as other officers, lawyers, academics and journalists.

Gen Ilker Basbug, who led the military between 2008 and 2010, has rejected all the charges against him. It is not yet known what the verdict is against him.

The plot allegedly aimed to topple the Justice and Development (AK) Party government. (+ video) » | Monday, August 05, 2013

Turkish Nationalist Plotters 'Planned to Kill Prime Minister'
TIMES ONLINE: Members of a nationalist plot to overthrow the Turkish Government planned to attack the Nato headquarters in Turkey and assassinate 12 prominent figures, including the Prime Minister, a court heard today.

Fifty-two additional suspects, including a former senior policeman, were charged with involvement in the alleged campaign of chaos and violence that was to culminate in a military coup. A court accepted the third, 1,454-page indictment in the Ergenekon trial, charging the ultranationalist, ultra-secularist group.

Two four-star generals and senior figures from the security forces, business, politics, academia and the media are among the defendants as Turkey confronts for the first time what has long been known as the Deep State. The network is considered to be the true, military-backed power behind the throne in this mainly Muslim democracy.

Ergenekon, named after a mythical valley where ancient Turks once lived, is considered the latest incarnation of an organisation that has allegedly existed for decades under different guises. It was given a new impetus and its new title after the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister, whose party was first elected in 2002. His background as a political Islamist has helped the group to sway public opinion, but it is his reformist, pro-European Union actions and policies that are most offensive to this isolationist and anti-Western group’s hard core. >>> Suna Erdem in Istanbul | Thursday, August 06, 2009