| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Turkey detains more suspects linked with alleged plot |
| 2010-04-06 |
| [Iran Press TV Latest] Turkish police have detained 86 more suspects as part of a probe into an alleged 2003 plot to topple the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On Monday, the suspects, most of them serving soldiers, were rounded up in Istanbul, Ankara and a dozen other provinces in the third wave of arrests since the investigation was launched in February, NTV television reported. Seventy of detainees were serving in the armed forces. One of them was a retired general, Anatolia news agency reported. The alleged plot, codenamed 'Operation Sledgehammer', was reportedly drawn up in 2003, shortly after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power amid fears it would undermine Turkey's secular system. The plot reportedly involved plans to bomb mosques and provoke tension with Greece, thus sparking political chaos and justifying a military takeover. In an unprecedented action targeting Turkey's influential army, police initially detained about 70 serving and retired officers, among them the former chiefs of Turkey's navy and air force. The alleged plot was first reported in January by The Taraf newspaper, which routinely targets the army. |
| Posted by:Fred |