Turkey Arrests Ex-Chief of Military, Gen. Ilker Basbug

By SEBNEM ARSU

ISTANBUL — In an unprecedented move, a civilian court ordered the arrest of Turkey’s former head of the army, the highest-ranking officer so far to be charged with leadership of an illegal network accused of seeking to overthrow the government, news outlets reported late Thursday.

Gen. Ilker Basbug, center, the former chief of the Turkish Army, arrived at a courthouse in Istanbul on Thursday.

Burhan Ozbilici/Associated Press

General Basbug in 2010.

Gen. Ilker Basbug, who was the chief of the army’s general staff from 2008 until his retirement in 2010, denied the charges, calling it a tragicomedy that the former commander of one of the world’s strongest armies would be accused of belonging to a terrorist organization, according to NTV, a private television station.

“It is very sad, and hard to understand,” he said during a 12-hour interrogation, NTV said. “If authorities have failed to discover any of this misconduct that I am claimed to have committed in active duty, then all is incomprehensible.”

The civilian court in Istanbul ordered the general jailed pending his trial on charges of seeking to overthrow the government.

His arrest appeared to be the latest skirmish in a power struggle between the pro-Islamic governing party, Justice and Development, and the secular establishment, which includes the army.

The government has jailed more than 300 people, including more than 200 active or retired military officers, as part of an investigation into what is said to be a plot in 2003 by the ultranationalist Ergenekon network to bomb mosques, assassinate prominent figures or start wars to stir chaos and prepare the grounds for a military coup.

No one has yet been convicted.

The military, which has long seen itself as the defender of Turkey’s secular Constitution, has carried out three successful coups. The governing party, which is rooted in a banned Islamist group, has insisted that the military is no longer beyond the law. The party has said that it is building a religiously tolerant democracy.

The rivalry intensified in July when the chief of the armed forces and the commanders of the navy, army and air force resigned en masse to protest the arrests of dozens of generals in conspiracy investigations they contend are politically motivated.

Human rights activists say the government is using the courts to intimidate opponents, and have expressed concern that suspects who could be tried in freedom are routinely jailed.

The detainees include 97 journalists, publishers and other members of the media, raising concerns that the arrests are intended to silence critics.

The government’s heavy hand in these cases has tarnished Turkey’s image as a model of democracy in the Muslim world and raised questions about its candidacy for membership in the European Union.

In the hearing on Thursday, the court also questioned General Basbug’s motives for public statements he made discrediting the findings of security operations against those suspected of being coup plotters, one of his lawyers said in a televised statement.

General Basbug reportedly replied that none of his statements had any hidden agenda except to bolster the morale of soldiers under his command.

The general was arrested after a number of other former military officers in a parallel court case claimed that antigovernment Web sites that they had set up had been primarily ordered by General Basbug, claims that he denied.

In Washington, the State Department said that it was monitoring the trial and that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had urged Turkish authorities during her visit to Istanbul last fall to address concerns about freedom of expression.

“We are watching this carefully and continuing to make clear our strong concerns about press freedom in Turkey to the Turkish government,” a State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said at a news briefing on Thursday.

She added: “We have to see whether this trial goes forward in a manner that is consistent with international standards, consistent with international human rights. So that’s the standard by which we’ll judge it.”

A version of this article appeared in print on January 6, 2012, on page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: Ex-Chief of Turkish Army Is Arrested In Widening Case Alleging Coup Plot.

via Turkey Arrests Ex-Chief of Military, Gen. Ilker Basbug – NYTimes.com.