By Xinhua,
Ankara : Tensions are rising in Turkey after police detain prominent retired generals, journalists and opposition politicians in a widening police investigation into two suspected failed coup attempts against the government.
On Tuesday, 21 people, including two former army commanders, a journalist and the leader of a business group, were detained as a part of investigation dubbed “Operation Ergenekon” in the cities of Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya and Trabzon.
Ergenekon is a powerful and illegal organization suspected of plotting to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK)-led government.
Retired Gen. Sener Eruygur, retired Gen. Hursit Tolon, retired Gen. Ilker Guven and former head of Gendarmerie General Command Intelligence Department Levent Ersoz as well as Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) Chairman Sinan Aygun and the Ankara bureau chief of the radically secularist Cumhuriyet daily Mustafa Balbay were among those taken into police custody.
The four generals are being mentioned as potential accomplices in a diary allegedly kept by a former navy commander detailing failed plans to overthrow the AK Party.
Eruygur was a leading figure among the organizers of so-called republican rallies held ahead of July elections last year in protest of the AK Party government.
His name was also mentioned in documents leaked to the press proving the existence of two failed coup attempts called Ayisigi and Sarikiz, which were plotted when Eruygur was still in the army.
Eruygur is also head of the secularist Ataturkist Thought Association (ADD), named after the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Birol Basaran, former head of the ADD’s Kadikoy chapter and chairman of the Nationalist Businessmen’s Association (USIAD), andADD Kadikoy’s current Chairman Coskun Gurel, a former colonel, were also detained.
Tolon was known for making frequent appearances at symposiums and conferences organized by ultra nationalists. This is the first time high rank generals are being detained in Turkey.
The detentions came hours ahead of a hearing in the case in which a chief prosecutor is seeking to have the ruling AK Party shut down for alleged Islamist activities.
The prosecutor was due to make an oral argument to the Constitutional Court — another part of Turkey’s secularist establishment.
The AK Party denied the prosecutor’s charges, saying they are politically motivated.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday deniedallegations suggesting a connection between detentions under “Operation Ergenekon” on Tuesday and a recent meeting between Erdogan and Land Forces Commander Gen. Ilker Basbug.
Earlier on Wednesday, Basbug, who is Turkey’s second most powerful military commander called for calm after two prominent retired generals were detained.
“Turkey is passing through difficult days. We all have to be acting with more common sense, more carefully and more responsibly,” said Basbug, who is due to take charge of the military in August.
He also denied the links between his meeting with Erdogan and the detentions, saying “The topic of Ergenekon investigation did not come up at all during my meeting with Erdogan.”
Following detention of Ankara representative of Cumhuriyet daily newspaper Mustafa Balbay on Tuesday, Republican People’s Party (CHP) chairman Deniz Baykal visited headquarters of the newspaper in Ankara on Wednesday, saying that in democratic societies, it was hard to accept detention of leading social figures without presenting a solid evidences.
He said detention of “honorable, well known and prominent figures” under the Ergenekon investigation was perceived as an attempt to take out the opposition in Turkey amongst the society and caused serious fears.
“These detentions have been going on for over a year. Waves of detention are still surging. It is really hard to see them as the natural process of justice,” Baykal said.
“People who love and respect Ataturk, who desire to keep his ideas alive, are presented as targets by the prosecutors of the Republic,” he said.
Baykal also warned that those responsible for the current developments would suffer the consequences in the end.