A group of ultra-nationalists detained this week had been plotting to kill Nobel Literature Laureate Orhan Pamuk, Turkish newspapers said on Thursday. The group, known as Ergenekon and led by a retired brigadier, was also planning a series of bomb attacks and assassinations aimed at fomenting chaos before mounting a coup against the Turkish government in 2009, the papers said. Police have so far arrested 35 people, including former army officers and lawyers known for their far-right views, following the seizure of explosives and weapons at a house in Istanbul last year. Officials have declined to comment on the accusations against the group, but newspapers have carried extensive and detailed claims suggesting the nationalists may have been behind a number of past bomb attacks and assassinations. “The gang was seeking 2 million lira ($1.67 million) and a Glock gun to assassinate Orhan Pamuk,” the Milliyet daily said. Pamuk, known for novels such as “My Name is Red” and “Snow”, is loathed by Turkish nationalists for saying Turkey was responsible for the deaths of more than a million Armenians during World War One and of 30,000 Kurds in recent decades.