TURKEY HAS arrested and imprisoned its former army chief, in a dramatic escalation of the decade-long struggle between the Islamist-rooted government and the once unassailable military.
Prosecutors allege that Gen Ilker Basbug, who retired as chief of staff in August 2010, led a terrorist organisation and plotted to overthrow the government.
At the heart of the accusations are claims that Gen Basbug ordered the army to operate a series of websites issuing anti-government and anti-Islamist propaganda as part of a so-called “action plan against reactionary forces”.
Questioning why a commander of “one of the most powerful armies in the world” would need to establish a terrorist organisation, Gen Basbug dismissed the allegations as “tragicomic”.
In a court appearance before his overnight incarceration, he said: “Accusing a chief of the general staff of setting up an armed terrorist organisation is the greatest punishment that could be given to me.”
His detention pending trial shows the decline of the army’s power since the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power in 2002. Until now no former chief of the country’s military had been arrested.
“In Turkey, the justice system always serves a political cause,” said Mustafa Akyol, a writer who is broadly sympathetic to Mr Erdogan’s goals but critical of what he says are excesses such as politicised trials. “It used to serve the military establishment. Now it is turning to the other side: it is supporting the government.”
In recent years about 60 serving generals and admirals have been arrested on suspicion of various plots, although none has yet been convicted. Detainees in Turkey can be held for years before their cases are resolved. Two Turkish human rights organisations recently said that of more than 120,000 people held in Turkish prisons as of April last year, 42 per cent were awaiting trial.
The army, which sees itself as the guardian of secular values, has mounted three coups since 1960 and ejected a fourth government from office in 1997.
But Mr Erdogan has seen off a series of challenges to his rule, scoring three big election victories despite opposition from the traditional secular elite.
In what was seen as a mark of the prime minister’s success in projecting civilian authority over the armed forces, Isik Kosaner, Gen Basbug’s successor, resigned with senior colleagues last July over arrests of army personnel.
– Copyright The Financial TimesLimited 2012