Turkish Forum

Tag: Recep Tayyip Erdogan

12th president of Turkey

  • CBS – BY DR. ROBERT B. MCKAY (TURK BOB)

    CBS – BY DR. ROBERT B. MCKAY (TURK BOB)

    From: ALI CINAR
    Subject: BOB MCKAYDEN CBS YORUMU

    To Les Moonves, President & CEO, CBS Corp.  [email protected]

    From: Robert McKay, PhD., P. O. Box 126, Eastford, CT 06242 860-974-0392

    Regarding:  Reply to the Bob Simon/Peter Balakian Story titled “Battle over History”

    Date:  February 28, 2010

    Bob Simon’s story being aired Sunday, February 28, 2010, on 60 Minutes with Peter Balakian is causing concerns about CBS by the Turkish community…concerns that I, too, share.

    50 Years ago my wife and I traveled to Turkey.  We lived there for 5 years as teachers at the Tarsus American College, Tarsus, Turkey.  Finding artifacts going back to 2500 B.C. opened our eyes to aspects of history that never seemed real in a sterile classroom on the rolling hills of eastern Connecticut, University of Connecticut.

    One of the many issues that interested me were the events of 1915 and the actions that surrounded them.

    However if we take 1915 out of context we do not see the relentless, persistent and predictable deaths that the Armenians have inflicted on their neighbors:  Jews, Kurds, Turks, Azeries, and all others who might disagree with them.

    A flow of history which shows a uniform and consistent pattern of atrocities by the Armenians would be the 3 periods listed:

    1.      1915 through WWI Armenian Russian conspiracy

    2.      1980’s Armenians begin worldwide assassinations:  Ambassadors and politicians

    they didn’t like.  The FBI credited Armenia with 25% of international terrorism in the USA.

    3.      1992—In the Nagorno=Karabakh region of Azerbaijan Armenian and Russian

    forces kill 400,000 Azaries leaving 1,000,000 (IDP’s) International Displaced

    Persons in Azerbaijan.

    Period I

    Let’s talk about 1915 through WWI.  It is well documented that Russia wished the demise of Ottoman Turkey and wanted access to oceans.  During this period Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire flocked to join Russian forces attacking the Ottomans from their eastern flank.  The Armenian Russian forces and guerilla forces with the Ottoman Empire blow up post offices, cut lines of communication and caused the Ottomans to move up to 400,000 troops from the southern flank to protect the Armenian Russian threat.  There were massacres and atrocities of equal magnitude on both sides.  Bones found in Turkish soil are both ethnically Turkic and Armenian.  However, today after all these years people like Peter Balakian, who never had first hand knowledge of the situation, claim that the Ottoman’s committed a genocide:  as a side note the term genocide was never used until it had political importance long after WWII.

    In brief your concern with the topic is appreciated, but telling only the pro-western/Christian side of the story is not appreciated.  In the minds of many scholars, writers and politicians, the Armenian perspective is wrong!  There are, in fact, two sides.

    Please note that a preponderance of scholars and politicians do not accept the genocide concept.  Interestingly the highest ranking Armenian, Hovhannes Katchaznouni, the first Prime Minister of the new independent Armenian Republic in 1923 did not accept the concept of genocide.

    a)      Dr. Katchaznouni in his report to the Dashnaq Party’s 1923 Congress clearly accepts Armenian responsibility for the tragedy that befell his country.  “We (Armenians) caused this tragedy.  Turks knew what they were doing (and) the (Ottoman Turkish) deportation (of Armenians) was right and necessary”

    This report has been hidden from researchers for years, however since being uncovered it has been published in a brief 125 page book titled “Dashnagtzoutiun Has Nothing to Do Anymore”, Kaynak Yayinlari (Kaynak Press)  pps. 125.

    b) The Malta Tribunal, held by England, immediately after WWI and initiated by the Armenian interest could not convict a single Ottoman military officer or politician of

    genocide and/or war crimes.

    c) U.S. Admiral Bristol, commander of the Sixth Fleet and later first Ambassador to the new Republic of Turkey (post WWI) traveled the country extensively and reported no genocide.

    d) Ambassador Elekdar went to England to intensively study a document produced by the English called the “Blue Book”.  The Ambassador has shown that most of the the documents were either fraudulently written or slanted so as to draw England into WWI.

    Ambassador Elekdar subjected himself to scholars from around the world on his findings. He has not been refuted.

    For brevity it is fair to say that the key scholars and leaders of the early 1900’s did not attribute a genocide to the Ottoman Turks.

    Period II

    During the 1980’s Armenians, who never at any time in the history of the Ottoman Empire had never had sovereignty over even a single square inch of the Anatolian peninsula were beginning to push for land claims and reparation based upon a made up genocide claim.

    During this time the Turkish archives were open to scholars.  No one has ever found a single note or sentence regarding a government policy of eliminating or getting rid of Armenians.

    Armenia would never open its archives.  In order to prevent conflicting view the Armenians began a worldwide campaign of assassinating ambassadors and others who disagreed with them.  In fact at one point during this period the FBI identified Armenia as being responsible for 25% of international terror casualties in the U.S.A.

    Period III

    In 1992 interest in oil drive an Armenian Russian genocide of Azeris.  As in Period I (1915) Armenians are pawns of Russia.

    However since the early 1800’s those people of the Transcaucuses:  Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been under the control of Russia.  The Armenians more that the others, have been willing to be the pawns of Russian geo-political interests.

    In the 1990’s Russia had decided that the oil rich region of Nagorno-Karabakh would be an autonomous section of Azerbaijan even though it had a high % of Armenians living there.

    The Armenians living in this Nagorno Karabkh region of Azerbaijan began killing any Azari that lived there.  In the village of Khojaly (about 7000 people) the Armenians killed every man, woman and child.  The Russian 366th Regiment participated.

    The result was that by 1992 Armenians were responsible for killing 400,000 people and leaving over 1,000,000 International Displaced Persons (IDP’s) in Azerbaijan.  Where is the popular media outrage?  Where is the political outrage?  These events are contemporary.

    As background information let’s remember that Armenia today is about the same population as Connecticut, slightly over 3 million.  Ten years ago the Armenian population was almost double that of today.  For economic reasons, Armenians are relocating around the world, a large percentage to Turkey.

    In Conclusion

    1. The long term actions of Armenia as an aggressor pawn of Russia lends credibility to the Turkish claims that there was no genocide.
    1. There is no doubt that more ethnic Turks died than ethnic Armenians,

    (International Red Cross figures state that more than 25% of all ethnic Turks died

    as a result of war, massacres, diseases and starvation.)

    1. There never was an Ottoman policy to exterminate Armenians.
    1. Ottoman Turks failed in World War I in large part because Armenian/Russian

    forces diverted their capabilities to the eastern part of the empire.

    1. At the beginning of the century Armenians were pawns of Russian attempts to

    gain seaports.  Armenia thought part of the Ottoman Empire would be given to

    them.

    1. Later in the century (1992) Armenia was a pawn of Russian oil interests.

    Again Russia gets oil, Armenia expands its borders into Azerbaijan.

    1. Armenian Russian killings in Azerbaijan are 400,000 dead and 1,000,000 IDP’s.

    Where is the outrage by the media and U.S. politicians.

    Personally I was very unhappy to see any program with Peter Balakian associated with it.  He is an Armenian nationalist who, as a “historian” has never attempted to see the truth of both sides.

    I could bring a wide range of resources to CBS that would acknowledge the suffering of Armenians and Turks and would like to do so if CBS has any interest in a broader look at history.

    Your 60 Minute piece either by plan or coincidence came at a very bad time:  the U.S. Congress is considering H. Res. 252 which agrees with the “non historical based claims of Armenia.”

    This resolution will harm U. S. Turkish relations and the Armenian-Turkish normalization process for years to come.  It will also harm Islam Christian trust for centuries around the world.  Alliances between Muslim and Christian countries will be less likely.  Certainly Turkish treaties with American backed Israel will be much

    less enthusiastically viewed.

    Cordially,

    Robert McKay

  • Army Ebbs, and Power Realigns in Turkey

    Army Ebbs, and Power Realigns in Turkey

    By SABRINA TAVERNISE
    Published: March 1, 2010

    ISTANBUL — The detention of top military officers in Turkey last week was nothing less than a quiet piece of history. The military, long considered untouchable in Turkey, was pushed from its political pedestal with startling finality.

    Enlarge This Image

    Umit Bektas/Reuters

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and Gen. Ilker Basbug, at a funeral on Sunday, are thought to have good relations.

    The moment, years in the making, was more whimper than bang. But it still raises an existential question for this NATO member: What sort of country will Turkey be?

    The question goes to the very heart of modern Turkey, a Muslim democracy whose military was a potent force in the country’s political life for most of its 86-year history. Its strictly secular ideology permeated all aspects of public life, including the education system, the judiciary and the bureaucracy. The military, long considered the ultimate guardian of that secularism, has overthrown elected governments to protect it.

    Not only has the military been politically defanged, but it has also proved unable or unwilling to fight back. Dozens of officers were detained last week, and several senior ones were arrested. Top military leaders met and managed to produce only a brief statement, never mind a coup.

    “What came out of that?” said Baskin Oran, a professor of international relations at Ankara University. “A big nothing. This is finished. Turkey has crossed the border.”

    Now the country is shedding its skin, sloughing off an outdated doctrine, but nervous about what will take its place.

    “The old ideology is bankrupt, that much we know,” said Soli Ozel, a professor of political science at Bilgi University. “But what are we going to be putting in its stead? How will we filter the world around us? How will we see ourselves?”

    Turkey is moving into uncharted territory, causing deep anxiety among millions of secular Turks who fear that the country’s domineering prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan — a former Islamist who won 47 percent of the vote in the last election and now controls many of the country’s institutions — will trample their rights.

    That worry deepened Monday, when the Turkish authorities made two more controversial arrests — of an active duty general and a state prosecutor who had investigated Islamic networks, Turkey’s Anatolian News Agency reported.

    How Turkey resolves this identity crisis will reverberate well beyond its borders. The country has the second largest army in NATO after the United States. It is strategically placed, with the former Soviet Union to the north and the Middle East to the south. It is a candidate for membership in the European Union. Decades of growth have made it the seventh largest economy in Europe.

    Last week’s detentions and arrests capped a month of high political drama that began in January, when a small independent newspaper, Taraf, published what it said were military documents from a 2003 meeting describing preparations for a coup.

    The documents were brought in a suitcase, Taraf’s editors said, and included diagrams of two Istanbul mosques that were to have been bombed, creating an emergency that would justify a military takeover.

    The military acknowledged that a meeting had taken place, but said that it was focused only on external threats. The army chief vehemently denied plans for bombings or a coup.

    Even so, on Monday of last week, the Turkish authorities began detaining military officers and by the end of the week had more than 60 in custody, including two top retired generals.

    “Now the army is completely pacified, eliminated as a power from the political scene,” said E. Haldun Solmazturk, a retired general. “Now the military is touchable.”

    That is a profound historical change. Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 by an army general, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who imposed radical changes in language and habits on a largely illiterate, agrarian society. The military, together with the judiciary and state bureaucracy, wielded immense power, guarding Turkish democracy “as if the country was a perpetually immature child,” said Halil Berktay, a history professor at Sabanci University in Istanbul.

    “The military came to acquire a sense of, ‘this is our land, this is our Republic,’ ” he said. It deposed elected governments four times, most recently in 1997.

    That role began to change with the rise of Mr. Erdogan, a tough-talking Istanbul mayor representing a rising underclass of religious Turks. He was a confounding mix, from a background of political Islam, but with an agenda of bringing Turkey into the European Union, where his supporters did most of their business.

    Although he was despised by the secular establishment, his party, Justice and Development, won a national election in a landslide in 2007.

    The election vastly diminished the military’s role in politics, but that was changing anyway. None of the alleged coup plots cited by prosecutors ever came to pass because the top leadership stopped them.

    And the fact that the military has not responded to the arrests — which include a sprawling legal proceeding against 200 people that began in 2007 — reflects a leadership that is opposed to intervention. The current chief of the army, Gen. Ilker Basbug, has spoken out against military meddling and is believed to have had good relations with Mr. Erdogan.

    But to Mr. Erdogan’s critics, the arrests look suspiciously like raw efforts to silence the opposition. And now that he has control over most of the levers of power — the presidency, the government bureaucracy and Parliament — they worry that his impulses will be unchecked.

    Many believe that the police and prosecutors have been hijacked by an Islamic network led by Fetullah Gulen, a Turkish preacher who lives in the United States. Nedim Sener, a journalist who has written a book on the network, said the involvement of Mr. Gulen’s followers was an “open secret.”

    A looming fear is that the last remaining institution with any power to oppose him, the judiciary, will soon fall to his Islamic supporters, who are unlikely to be less ideological than their rigidly secular predecessors.

    Even those who are happy to see Mr. Erdogan prevail say he is a flawed leader with autocratic tendencies. His biggest critic, Aydin Dogan, a businessman and publisher, was slapped with a giant fine last year, and journalists who work for his newspapers say spunky criticism is dead.

    Mr. Ozel, the political scientist, described Mr. Erdogan’s party as “a democratizing force, but not necessarily a democratic one.”

    Yildiray Ogur, an editor at Taraf who worked on the exposé that led to last week’s arrests, defended the legal cases, saying today’s Turkey was a slow-motion version of the Soviet Union in 1991, when idols fell and people came out of the woodwork confessing secrets.

    For better or worse, Mr. Ozel says, former Islamists like Mr. Erdogan are the only ones engaged in the project of creating a new Turkey, with the secularist party “either incapable or unwilling to be part of the process,” routinely blocking legislation required for European Union membership.

    But Mr. Sener fears this new Turkey will exclude people like him. “They say this is about democracy, but it ends up increasing their hold on power,” he said.

    Mr. Oran of Ankara University dismisses those fears. Borrowing a thought from Marx, he noted that Mr. Erdogan’s supporters, once Islamist and working class, had grown comfortable, sowing the seeds of the party’s transformation. “It has become bourgeois,” Mr. Oran said. “They will always be Muslims, but they won’t be Islamists.”

  • Armeno-Turkish Relations: Pitfalls and Possibilities

    Armeno-Turkish Relations: Pitfalls and Possibilities

    The Armenian Revolutionary Federation

    NY and NJ Committees

    Present

    Armeno-Turkish Relations:

    Pitfalls and Possibilities

    A public forum

    Featuring

    John Evans

    Former US Ambassador to Armenia

    Ken Hachikian

    Chairman, ANCA

    Richard Hovannisian

    AEF Chair in Modern Armenian History, UCLA

    Dennis Papazian

    Emeritus Professor of History, University of Michigan-Dearborn

    Sunday, March 7

    4:30 pm

    New York Hilton Hotel

    1335 Ave. of the Americas (at 53rd St)

    Admission is Free

    For more information, contact the ARF at (718) 651-1530 or (201) 945-0011

    __._,_.___

  • What’s Really Behind Turkey’s Coup Arrests?

    What’s Really Behind Turkey’s Coup Arrests?

    What’s Really Behind Turkey’s Coup Arrests? | Foreign Policy

    BY SONER CAGAPTAY | FEBRUARY 25, 2010

    FEBRUARY 27, 2010

    What’s Really Behind Turkey’s Coup Arrests?

    All signs point to Fethullah Gülen, whose shadowy Islamist movement is rapidly extending its tentacles into all aspects of Turkish political life.

    BY SONER CAGAPTAY | FEBRUARY 25, 2010

    For the last several decades, the Turkish military was untouchable; no one dared to criticize the military or its top generals, lest they risk getting burned.  The Turkish Armed Forces were the ultimate protectors of founding father Kemal Ataturk’s secular legacy, and no other force in the country could seriously threaten its supremacy. Not anymore.

    On Feb. 22, 49 officers—including active-duty generals, admirals, and former commanders of the Turkish navy and air force—were arrested on allegations of plotting a coup against the government. Specifically, the officers were charged with authoring a 5,000-page memo that was later published in Taraf, a paper whose editorial policy is singularly dedicated to bashing the military. Among other things, the memo stated that the Turkish military was planning to bomb Istanbul’s historic mosques and shoot down its own planes to justify a coup.  When I asked a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey for his views on the news, he thought the scenario was ridiculous. “If the Turkish military was going to do a coup, they would not be writing a 5,000-page memo about it,” he stated.  Three days later, the former commanders of the navy and air force were released — further proof that the government’s intention was to intimidate Turkey’s military, rather than proceed with an indictment against these high-ranking officials. The arrests followed a Feb. 19 incident in which an audio recording of Turkey’s chief of staff was leaked to Vakit, a small jihadi Islamist newspaper that has celebrated the killing of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. In Turkey, it is illegal to wiretap individuals without a court order, and it is also illegal to publish such wiretaps. However, no one has been prosecuted for this wiretap against the chief of staff—a sign that the balance of power in Turkey has shifted decisively.

    A mountain has moved in Turkish politics. All shots against the military are now fair game, including those below the belt. The force behind this dramatic change is the Fethullah Gülen Movement (FGH), an ultraconservative political faction that backs the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The FGH was founded in the 1970s by Fethullah Gülen, a charismatic preacher who now lives in the United States but remains popular in Turkey. It is a conservative movement aiming to reshape secular Turkey in its own image, by securing the supremacy of Gülen’s version of religion over politics, government, education, media, business, and public and personal life.

    To some, it might appear that the newfound freedom to criticize the military proves that Turkey is becoming a more liberal democracy. But the truth is that Turkey has replaced one “untouchable” organization for another, more dangerous, one. Criticizing the Gülen movement, which controls the national police and its powerful domestic intelligence branch, and which exerts increasing influence in the judiciary, has become as taboo as assailing the military once was. Today, it is those who criticize the Gülen movement who get burned. COMMENTS (87) SHARE: Digg  Facebook  Reddit   More…

    Of course, coup allegations are serious matters that warrant immediate action.  However, these allegations are part of the Ergenekon case—a convoluted investigation that so far has produced nothing in the last three years but a record-setting 5,800-page indictment, hundreds of early-morning house raids, and the detention of many prominent Turks, including university presidents and prominent educators such as Kemal Guruz and Mehmet Haberal. The only quality that ties together all of those arrested is their opposition to the AKP government and the Gülen movement. Zekeriya Oz, the chief prosecutor leading the Ergenekon case, and Ramazan Akyurek, the head of the police’s domestic intelligence branch, as well as other powerful people in the police, are thought by some to be Gülen sympathizers.

    Although some of the people interrogated and arrested might have been involved in criminal wrongdoing, most appear to be innocent. Take, for instance, Turkan Saylan, a 73-year-old grandmother who was undergoing chemotherapy. Saylan ran an NGO providing liberal arts education scholarships to poor girls in eastern Turkey, an area where Gülen’s network runs many competing organizations. She was interrogated by the Turkish police for allegedly plotting a coup from her death bed, and passed away only four weeks later.

    Many others have languished in jail, or even died, without seeing an indictment.  The Gülen-controlled parts of the judiciary and police have also wielded illegal wiretaps against those entangled in the Ergenekon case, leaking intimate details of their private lives, such as marital infidelity, to pro-AKP and pro-Gülen media in order to damage their reputations.

    Illegal wiretaps and arbitrary arrests serve to intimidate the public, not prosecute criminals. Because of Ergenekon, Turks who oppose the AKP and the Gülen movement fear to speak their minds freely. If you have doubts, call a friend in Turkey and ask for an opinion of the case. Your friend will respond with details of the weather.

    The military, which opposes the AKP and the Gülenists because it sees itself as the virtual guardian of Turkey’s secular polity à la Ataturk’s vision, serving as a bulwark against religion’s domination over politics and government, has become the primary target of this round of politically motivated arrests.  Illegally obtained documents, including confidential and sometimes embarrassing medical records of four-star generals, were published openly in Gülenist media.  Although the chief of staff said the documents were doctored, they were recently used as evidence, with the support of anonymous witnesses, to arrest serving generals and admirals.

    The roots of the Gülen movement’s vendetta against the army run deep. Following the pattern of the evangelical movement in the United States, the FGH grew dramatically in the 1980s. Gülen espoused a Machiavellian approach to democracy, saying to his followers in a message broadcast on Turkish TV in 1999 that “every method and path is acceptable [including] lying to people.” In the 1990s, the movement gained political power by throwing its weight behind various governments, which in return appointed FGH members to prominent positions in the bureaucracy, including the police and the intelligence branch.  In the late 1990s, Gülen went head-to-head with Turkey’s military—and lost.  The clash between the Islamist Welfare Party (RP) government, which was supported by the FHG, and the military was at the center of this conflict. In 1997, the Turkish military orchestrated a public campaign against the RP. With pressure mounting against its rule, the RP government stepped down. As a result, members of Islamist movements, including those belonging to the FGH, were purged from their posts in the bureaucracy and the military.  When the Turkish courts charged Gülen with corruption and anti-secular political activities in 1999, he fled to a rural compound in Pennsylvania. Although he was later acquitted, Gülen has never returned to Turkey.  The FGH has returned, however, with a vengeance. When the AKP, which is largely a reincarnation of the banned RP, came to power in 2002, the FGH positioned its media, voter, and business lobby support behind the governing party. In return, the AKP appointed FGH members to prominent positions in the judiciary and the bureaucracy, including the police’s intelligence branch.  With the Gülen movement in control of large portions of the government apparatus and running a political witch hunt against its opponents through the Ergenekon case, Turkey is taking a dangerously authoritarian turn. A personal friend and politician from the former Soviet Union once said, “A police state emerges not when the police listen to all the citizens, but when all the citizens fear that they are being listened to.” Welcome to the new Turkey: If you listen carefully, you can hear the political ground shifting below your feet.

  • COMMUNITY ALERT

    COMMUNITY ALERT

    THIS SUNDAY FEBRUARY 28, CBS-60 MINUTES WILL AIR A SEGMENT ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

    PLEASE BE SURE TO WATCH. TELL YOU FRIENDS & FAMILY!

    –USE THE ‘FORWARD EMAIL’ link below.

    –SHARE THE NEWS ON FACEBOOK / TWITTER

    It is anticipated that the segment will also be available for viewing after broadcast on the 60 MINUTES WEBSITE.

    AGBU/CHICAGO BOARD

    60 MINUTES
    PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
    “BATTLE OVER HISTORY” Bob Simon reports on what the Armenians call their holocaust – the 1915 forced deportation and massacre of more than a million ethnic Armenians by the Turks – an event that the Turks and our own government have refused to call genocide. Michael Gavshon and Drew Magratten are the producers.

  • Turkey’s Gul seeks to calm military ‘coup plot’ fears

    Turkey’s Gul seeks to calm military ‘coup plot’ fears

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left), President Abdullah Gul and Gen Ilker Basbug meet in Ankara, February 25 2010

    Thursday’s meeting was called amid escalating tension between the government and the military

    Turkey’s president has said tensions over an alleged military coup plot will be resolved within the law, after meeting the head of the armed forces.

    President Abdullah Gul made the statement after a summit with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and armed forces chief Gen Ilker Basbug.

    Tension between the government and the military has risen following a round of arrests over the alleged plot.

    Twenty military officers were charged this week in connection with the case.

    They were among more than 40 officers arrested on Monday.

    HOW ‘COUP PLOTS’ EMERGED
    June 2007: Cache of explosives discovered; ex-soldiers detained
    July 2008: 20 arrested, including two ex-generals and a senior journalist, for “planning political disturbances and trying to organise a coup”
    July 2008: Governing AK Party narrowly escapes court ban
    October 2008: 86 go on trial charged with “Ergenekon” coup plot
    July 2009: 56 in dock as second trial opens
    Jan 2010: Taraf newspaper reports 2003 “sledgehammer” plot to provoke coup
    Feb 2010: More than 40 officers arrested over “sledgehammer”; 20 charged

    Turkey’s religious-secular divide

    Turkish military faces crossroads

    The retired head of the air force Ibrahim Firtina and former navy chief Ozden Ornek were in court on Thursday morning for questioning and could still be charged.

    After several hours of talks on Thursday, Mr Gul sought to reassure the country.

    “It was stressed that citizens can be sure that the problems on the agenda will be solved within the framework of the constitution and our laws,” a statement from his office said.

    Mr Erdogan was quoted by local media as saying Thursday’s meeting had gone “very well”.

    The military has denied any coup plot and has held its own officers’ summit to discuss the “serious situation” in the wake of the latest arrests.

    Unprecedented operation

    The BBC’s Jonathan Head in Istanbul says the Turkish government is embroiled in the greatest test yet of its authority over the armed forces.

    Turkey’s military has overthrown or forced the resignation of four governments since 1960 – most recently in 1997 – though Gen Basbug has insisted that coups are a thing of the past.

    The scale of Monday’s operation against the military was unprecedented. Those arrested include two serving admirals, three retired admirals and three retired generals.

    Former Air Force Commander Gen Ibrahim Firtina arriving at court in Istanbul, 25 Feburary 2010

    Ex-Air Force head Gen Ibrahim Firtina was among those being questioned

    A number of them are being kept in jail while 12 have reportedly been freed.

    Dozens of current or former members of the military have been arrested in the past few years over similar plot allegations, and some have been charged.

    The latest men to be charged were arrested over the so-called “sledgehammer” plot, which reportedly dates back to 2003.

    Reports of the alleged plot first surfaced in the liberal Taraf newspaper, which said it had discovered documents detailing plans to bomb two Istanbul mosques and provoke Greece into shooting down a Turkish plane over the Aegean Sea.

    The army has said the scenarios were discussed but only as part of a planning exercise at a military seminar.

    The alleged plot is similar, and possibly linked, to the reported Ergenekon conspiracy, in which military figures and staunch secularists allegedly planned to foment unrest, leading to a coup.

    Scores of people, including military officers, journalists and academics, are on trial in connection with that case.

    ‘Painful transformation’

    Analysts say the crackdown on the military would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.

    The army has regarded itself as the guardian of a secular Turkish state, but its power has been eroded in recent years, with Turkey enacting reforms designed to prepare it for entry to the European Union.

    Many Turks regard the cases as the latest stage in an ongoing power struggle between Turkey’s secular nationalist establishment and the governing AK Party.

    Critics believe the Ergenekon and sledgehammer investigations are simply attempts to silence the government’s political and military opponents.

    The AK Party has its roots in political Islam, and is accused by some nationalists of having secret plans to turn staunchly secular Turkey into an Islamic state.

    The government rejects those claims, saying its intention is to modernise Turkey and move it closer to EU membership.

    “Transformations may sometimes be painful,” Economy Minister Ali Babacan said Wednesday.

    “We are trying to make Turkey’s democracy first class.”

    What is your reaction to the crackdown on the military? post your views on the current crisis using the form below.