THE TURKISH RULING PARTY ON THE OFFENSIVE: ARRESTS 100 POLITICAL FOES

From the New York Times:

Eighty-six people, including former military officers, and writers and lawyers, were formally charged on Monday with membership in an illegal ultranationalist organization, and of plotting a coup to overthrow the Turkish government.

Speaking at a televised news conference, the Istanbul chief prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin, refused to give details of the case against the ultranationalist and hard-line secular organization, known as Ergenekon, citing prohibitions on public briefings before a case is formally accepted by the criminal court.

But he said the suspects, 48 of them in police custody and the others free awaiting trial, were charged with forming, managing and aiding the terror organization that allegedly plotted a military coup against the Islamic-rooted governing Justice and Development Party, which came to power in 2002.

... The 2,455-page indictment is widely perceived in Turkey as being part of a power struggle between the elitist secular establishment, including parts of the military, and the democratically elected and religiously conservative government.

Another case currently before Turkey’s highest court has charged the ruling party and its leadership with introducing religion into government and violating the secular principles on which the Turkish state was founded, and seeks to disband the party.

... A security operation earlier this month led to the arrests of other suspects including two high-ranking retired generals. However, these suspects were not included in the indictment Monday. Those cases would be added in a separate filing at a later date, Mr. Engin said.

... The timing of the indictments Monday, as well as the way some suspects were forced out of their beds after midnight for interrogation, was interpreted by some analysts as an effort by pro-government prosecutors to intimidate the government’s opponents. Most of the suspects arrested are outspoken critics of the government

Since the founding of the republic in 1923, elected governments in Turkey have been removed from power three times by direct coups. In 1997, an Islamic leaning government was also pressured by the military to step down.

There is widespread concern among some analysts that closure of the ruling party, which won more than 45 percent of the vote in the general election last year, may destabilize the nation’s economy and hurt the reform process aimed at leading the country into the European Union.

• STAY TUNED: THE AKP IS TRYING TO PREEMPT CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTICE, AND THESE EXTRAORDINARY EFFORTS ARE AIMED AT PREVENTING THEIR OUSTER.

• BOTTOM-LINE: THE END-GAME ENTAIL THINGS A HECK OF A LOT WORSE THAN JUST A DESTABILIZED ECONOMY: IT COULD LEAD TURKEY INTO A LEBANESE STYLE CIVIL WAR.