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| Europe |
| Turey: Army appeals for calm after arrests |
| 2008-07-03 |
| (AKI) - The Turkish army has appealed for calm after the arrest on Tuesday of two retired army generals suspected of a coup plot against the government. 'Turkey is passing through difficult days. We all have to be acting with more common sense, more carefully and more responsibly,' said Gen. Ilker Basbug, the second most powerful general in the Turkish armed forces. Police detained over 20 people on Tuesday as part of a nationwide investigation into an an alleged network of hardline nationalists supposedly plotting to to overthrow the government. Hundreds of people were reported to have gathered in front of secular daily Cumhuriyet's offices in Istanbul on Tuesday to protest against the detentions. The paper's bureau chief Mustafa Balbay was among those held in the probe. The high-profile detentions of known government critics come as the Turkey's ruling Islamist-rooted AKP party fights for its survival in court. On Tuesday, Turkey's chief prosecutor appeared before the country's Constitutional Court asking for the AKP to be disbanded. AKP critics accuse the government of undermining Turkey's officially secular state by easing a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf. The case is due to continue on Thursday. |
| Posted by:Fred |