Turkish Army to Probe Alleged Anti-government Plot - Report
The Turkish army said Friday it had ordered a probe into a colonel's alleged plot to discredit the Islamist-rooted government and its supporters.
"The general staff's military prosecution was given an immediate order for a comprehensive investigation into the issue," army spokesman Metin Gurak was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.
The liberal Taraf daily reported Friday it had obtained a copy of a plan aiming "to break popular support" for the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and its influential supporter, the brotherhood of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen.
The alleged plan, penned in April, was designed as a counter-strike against an ongoing probe into a purported secularist-nationalist network accused of plotting to topple the AKP, which has raised political tensions in Turkey.
The document said "the AKP government entertains ambitions to destroy the democratic system and replace it with an Islamic state based on Sharia," according to Taraf.
It envisaged a series of actions, mostly media propaganda, to discredit the AKP, the moderate offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, and fan divisions among party ranks, Taraf said.
The daily quoted a section calling for raids on student houses run by the Gülen community in which "the discovery of weapons and munitions will be ensured" to secure the brotherhood's classification as "an armed terrorist organisation."
Hardline Turkish secularists have long accused the AKP of having a secret agenda to undermine the mainly Muslim country's secular system, a charge the party fiercely rejects.
Several retired generals are among dozens of suspects arrested as part of a controversial probe, under way since June 2007, into an alleged plot to carry out assassinations and spark political chaos in Turkey in a bid to prompt a military coup against the AKP.
Eighty-six people - also including politicians, journalists, academics and underworld figures - have been on trial since October in the case.
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