Turkish trial exposes culture of conspiracy

Two senior retired generals face charges of plotting to overthrow Turkey's government on Monday as an Istanbul court begins hearing the second stage of a vast investigation into a clandestine ultra-nationalist network.

Two years after the discovery of weapons in a run-down Istanbul neighbourhood, the ever-widening probe into the "Ergenekon" network – named after the Turks' mythical central Asian homeland – has become both a national soap opera and a deeply serious test of Turkey's changing political culture.

Eighty six people – including many known for their nationalist views and opposition to the Islamist-rooted Justice & Development (AK) party government – are already on trial charged with planning violent attacks to prepare the ground for a military coup.

The second indictment, opening charges against a further 56, is even more overtly political. It accuses generals Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur of masterminding a terrorist group and inciting armed rebellion against the government, and probes the outbreak of secular opposition to Abdullah Gul's appointment as president in 2007.

In thousands of pages, the prosecutors describe both notorious attacks, such as the killing of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, and seemingly legitimate plans for organising anti-government demonstrations, as part of a plot to subvert democracy.

Over and above the lurid details, the tag "Ergenekon" has become synonymous with Turkey's "deep state" culture of military coups and mysterious killings, organised by well connected bureaucrats, officers and civilians.

"Ever since the foundation of the Turkish political system, a clear distinction has been made between the sphere of the state and the sphere of politics," the think-tank Tesev notes in a new report.

At its mildest, this means military influence over policies ranging from education to Kurdish cultural rights. But it has also produced an army and ruling class that feels justified going beyond the law to defend its view of Turkish values – at worst, in the thousands of extra-judicial killings of the 1990s dirty war against Kurdish separatists.

Liberal intellectuals – and many ordinary Turks – hope the trial will put an end to such murky activities. "What is pleasing to me is that pre­viously untouchable people are now touchable. I feel they can't get away with it – whatever it is," said one investment banker in Istanbul.

The problem, though, is that the conduct of the trial has raised doubts over its legitimacy, raising more tension between old-style secularists and religious conservatives.

Televised dawn raids hauling in respected academics and journalists; sexagenarian suspects jailed for long periods before trial; and a reliance on phonetapping for evidence have helped secularist politicians condemn the case as a witch hunt against AKP opponents.

"Rule nothing out and nothing in: there is at least one conspiracy and possibly two," says a western diplomat in Ankara.

Even supporters of the trial are frustrated at the focus on recent politics. "We have the impression they are only investigating the crimes against the AKP or those planning a coup, not the heavy crimes that occurred in Turkey in the last 20 to 30 years," said Tahir Elci, a lawyer in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. He has asked the prosecutor to investigate links between Ergenekon suspects and 1990s killings in the south-east.

A third voluminous indictment, tying in scores more suspects and potentially addressing these issues, is expected this week. But the practical difficulties of such a vast investigation are mounting: just to house the crowd of defendants, lawyers and onlookers, a prison sports hall was converted into a courtroom for the trial.

Meanwhile, there are signs that the military and its supporters are taking the fight back to the AKP. A delay in announcing annual appointments of judges and prosecutors sparked rumours the Ergenekon team could be moved on, although it would be next to impossible for newcomers to master the mass of detail.

General Ilker Basbug, a moderate chief of general staff who has helped restore AKP-army relations, complained last month of an "organised smear campaign" against the military. Now, a law passed on the last night of the parliamentary session, giving civilian courts the ability to try coup plotters, faces a constitutional court challenge.

Yet, as Mr Elci phrases it, "the genie is out of the bottle". Even if the Ergenekon case rumbles on for two years, the hope is that the culture of coup and conspiracy it concerns is ending.

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