Documents seized by Turkish police indicate that a shadowy, ultra-nationalist illegal organization, Ergenekon, planned to trigger a coup to unseat the government, newspapers reported on Thursday.
The mass-scale arrests were conducted July 1, the day of the official hearing on the closure of the ruling AK party under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (who was banned from party membership for five years). Retired generals and government officials related to the Ergenekon group were arrested.
The documents seized in recent raids by the security police revealed the abortive coup, the Turkey's dailies Sabah and Yeni Safak said on Thursday.
Turkish media said a secret plan, including launching illegal protests on July 7 across 40 provinces and clashes with security forces, had been seized during a police swoop on suspected members of the so-called Ergenekon organization. The main motto of the protests was supposed to be "Economy is Falling". And this is on the top of the fact that the Turkish economy during Erdogan has been on the rise as never before. The successes in economy is what makes the key achievement of the ruling party.
The Cumhuriyet newspaper, whose editor-in-chief of the Ankara bureau was detained as well, was supposed to actively support and popularize the idea of the coup.
The newspapers reported that the nationalists have set up a group of activists, which officers of security police were part of as well, in order to aggravate internal political tensions in the country. The police officers were supposed to open fire on the protesters to provoke clashes with the security forces, as well as to liquidate some "well-known persons", Prime Minister Erdogan and President Gul being among them.
After creating chaos in the country and laying the groundwork for the coup d'etats, the ultra-nationalists were planning to take over the power in Turkey.
In the implementation of this scenario, Ergenekon was supposed to be assisted by a number of leaders of local organizations, such as Ankara's Chamber of Commerce, Sabah writes.
Turkish army has already made three military coups in the country. The last coup took place in 1997, when "Islamist" N. Erbakan was removed from power.
Kavkaz Center
Publication time: 3 July 2008, 16:37
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