Turkish PM presses on with probe into alleged army plot

Turkey to investigate ‘all efforts’ to hurt democracy, says Erdogan

Chinese President Hu Jintao (l) and Abdullah Gul, president of the Republic of Turkey, walk past a guard of honor during a welcoming ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, yesterday. Gul is on a five-day official visit to China.

By Ibon Villelabeitia - Reuters

ANKARA – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday he would press on with an investigation into an alleged military plot to undermine the Islamist-rooted ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) after the army denied involvement.

Turkey’s military said on Wednesday there was no evidence a plot against the AKP had been drawn up inside General Staff headquarters and said it would not prosecute a senior officer who allegedly signed the incriminating document.

“This is about a document which is aimed at a political party in Turkey,” Erdogan told a news conference.

“We will investigate all efforts to undermine democracy regardless of the source.” The document, published this month by daily Taraf, laid out an alleged military plan crafted by a navy colonel to stop the AKP and a religious movement from “destroying Turkey’s secular order and replacing it by an Islamist state.”

A civilian court is looking into the report after the government filed a criminal complaint.

The controversy, which has further strained ties between the government and the military in the European Union candidate, has put Turkey’s powerful generals on the defensive.

The staunchly secular military, which has removed four elected governments in the last 50 years and regards itself as the ultimate guardian of Turkey’s secular values, has disowned the plan and promised to purge any soldier involved in the plot.

Turkish financial markets have reacted calmly to the row.

Analysts see little risk of the military staging a coup because of strong public support for the AKP and concern that any such move would hurt the reputation of the armed forces.

Military prosecutors on Wednesday called on civilian courts to find out who wrote the document. Critics of the government and some commentators have speculated the document may be a forgery leaked as part of a smear campaign against the army.

Regardless of the document’s authenticity, the case has tarnished the image of the powerful military, which has seen its influence in politics wane as Ankara pushes ahead with liberal reforms aimed at winning EU membership.

The AKP has seized on the case to take the moral high ground, pledging to prosecute conspirators and defend democracy.

The ruling party, which has its roots in political Islam, is at odds with the secularist establishment of generals, judges and academics in a power struggle over the country’s direction.

Turkey’s secularist elite accuses the AKP of harboring plans to undermine the separation of state and religion. The party denies this.

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Showing that Turkey has a future in the European Union would send a positive message to the whole Muslim world, the country’s European affairs minister said yesterday.

“What kind of message do we want to give to the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world who have the feeling of being pushed away by the West?” Egemen Bagis said at a Brussels press conference.

“Turkey’s accession is not only going to send a signal to the Turks” but to the whole Muslim world, he added, using an argument also heard in Washington in favor of Turkish EU accession.

Several EU nations, including Austria, France and Germany, have opposed the big majority Muslim nation joining the European Union and it was a key issue in several countries in the EU Parliament election campaign.

“So many candidates who had nothing to do exploited the issue for local political consumption and not only insulted Turkey but also their voters,” he complained. “More than 6 million Turks already live and vote in EU countries; that’s more than the population of many EU countries,” he added. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due in Brussels yesterday to try to revitalize the accession process.

Bagis attempted to counter calls by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a limited “privileged partnership.” “Those concepts will bring neither privilege nor partnership for Turkey. Turkey will take nothing less than EU membership,” he said.