Turkey's democracy under microscope

DEMOCRATIC FIGHT: Turkey's government is under the microscope as it fights against ultra-nationalism, analysts said. (Getty Images)

A police inquiry resulting in the arrest of dozens of people, including ex-army officers and lawyers, could test Turkey's democracy and its ability to fight ultra-nationalism as well as help its campaign to join the EU.

Turkish authorities announced on Tuesday the detention of 33 people as part of an eight-month investigation into a cache of explosives and weapons seized in an Istanbul shanty town last year. The detained have not yet been charged.

Newspapers and analysts say the investigation extends far beyond the weapons case and say the detainees are part of a shadowy "deep state", code for hardline nationalists in Turkey's security forces and state bureaucracy ready to take the law into their own hands for the sake of their ideological agenda.

"The state takes on the deep state," read the headline of Wednesday's pro-government Sabah newspaper.

The liberal Radikal daily said those arrested had tried to foster "the climate for a coup", hinting they had powerful backers in a secular military and bureaucratic elite that deeply distrusts Turkey's AK Party government and its EU reforms.

Officials have confirmed the names of many of those detained but have so far declined to give details of the accusations against them. The detained include a retired colonel who heads a far-right group known for its elaborate oath-taking rituals.

Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan and interior minister Besir Atalay were personally involved in the decision by Turkey's counter-terrorism unit to detain the suspects, newspapers said.

"All democrats in Turkey have been looking forward to this sort of action by the government... Everybody is now hoping something will happen but people remain very suspicious," said Cengiz Aktar, a professor at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University.

"This is a very important test for the government, they will be judged by this... If these people [are guilty and] are convicted, it will be very good for Turkish democracy as well as for our efforts to join the European Union."

Several other criminal cases believed to involve the "deep state" have petered out due to a lack of political will, analysts say.

The Milliyet daily quoted police sources as saying the suspects, members of an illegal gang known as "Ergenekon", had been plotting to kill prominent Kurdish politicians as well as Turkey's only Nobel Prize winner, the novelist Orhan Pamuk.

Pamuk fell foul of nationalists after saying Turkey was responsible for the deaths of more than a million ethnic Armenians during World War One and of 30,000 Kurds in recent decades. Nationalists say such claims sully Turkey's honour.

The Sabah daily said the "Ergenekon" network was behind the 2007 slaying of Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink, the murder of an Italian Catholic priest in 2006, the killing of a judge in an attack on Turkey's top administrative court in 2006 and several bomb attacks on the left-leaning Cumhuriyet daily.

There is no evidence of a link between these different incidents, though Turkish media have long speculated about possible "deep state" involvement in each of these cases.

Several youths are now on trial over the Dink murder, which triggered mass protests in Istanbul against ultra-nationalism. Another youth has been jailed for the murder of the priest in his church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon.

Among the detainees is Kemal Kerencsiz, a lawyer who brought cases against both Dink and Pamuk under article 301 of Turkey's penal code that makes it a crime to insult "Turkishness". Dink had received a suspended sentence under 301 before his murder while Pamuk was acquitted on a legal technicality.

The government is expected to reform article 301 in the near future amid heavy pressure from the EU, which sees the law as a major impediment to freedom of expression.

Turkey began EU membership talks in 2005, but negotiations have slowed sharply amid disputes over human rights and Cyprus. (Reuters)

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