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
