TURKS STILL BATTLING THE AKP'S ASSAULT ON SECULARISM AND ON THE PRO-SECULARISM ARMED FORCES

• IN TURKEY - LIKE IN EGYPT DURING THE TIME OF MUBARAK - THE MILITARY HAD LONG BEEN THE PROTECTOR OF THE SECULAR STATE.

• THAT'S WHY THE THE RULING PARTY - THE AKP, AN ISLAMIST PARTY LED BY THE PM ERDOGAN - HAS BEEN ATTACKING THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE MILITARY --- A STORY WE'VE BEEN FOLLOWING SINCE 2008.

• THE AKP ALLEGED THE PRO-SECULAR MILITARY WAS PLANNING A COUP TO PROTECT TURKEY FROM ANY FURTHER ISLAMIZATION, (A COUP THEY NAMED THE ERGENEKON AFFAIR - ERGENEKON MEANS "SLEDGEHAMMER").

• THE TRIALS FOR THE ARRESTED MEMBERS OF THE ALLEGED COUP ARE STARTING, AND TURKS WHO WANT TURKEY TO REMAIN SECULAR --- AS ATTATURK, THE FOUNDER OF TURKEY, TURKEY'S WASHINGTON HAD WANTED --- ARE BEGINNING TO FIGHT BACK.

WE LEARN TODAY - VIA GLENN - THAT MANY TURKS, (PERHAPS INSPIRED BY THE RECENT WAVE OF UNREST) ARE BEGINNING TO TAKE TO THE STREETS AND DEMONSTRATE:

Thousands of Turks, including the wives of defendants charged with trying to topple the government, marched to the tomb of the founder of modern Turkey on Saturday to protest at the arrests of army officers.

More than 150 active and retired military officers are in jail during hearings in the so-called Sledgehammer trial, at which prosecutors say they planned to overthrow in 2003 Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, which traces its roots to a banned movement.

The military leadership denies any coup plots.

Some 3,000 people gathered in a heavy rain at Anitkabir, the sprawling tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a former officer who led Turkey to independence after World War I, founded the secular republic in 1923 and served as its first president.

They carried flags and shouted "Turkey is secular and will stay secular" and "The army and the people are hand in hand."

MORE HERE:

The military is Turkey's self-proclaimed protector of secularism in a country that is 99.9 percent Muslim. Generals have toppled three governments since 1960 and pressured a fourth, Turkey's first Islamist-led, to quit in 1997.

EVEN MORE HERE:

Noting that they want a fair trial, Sevil Örnek also called on senior commanders to show their support for the detained officers.

“We are the spouses of those who were judged in the name of Balyoz and unjustly arrested. We want support for our demand that the hearings should be broadcast live,” said Rengin Gürdeniz, wife of Rear Adm. Cem Gürdeniz of the Turkish Naval Force.

“We are not against trials but we are against arrests being done without recognition of the laws,” she said.

A prosecutor ordered the detentions of 163 retired and serving officers last week, including top former generals such as former Air Force Cmdr. İbrahim Fırtına and former 1st Army Cmdr. Çetin Doğan, as part of the ongoing Sledgehammer case. The detentions have created uneasiness in the military, whose head, Chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner, recently passed along the force’s concerns to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Sledgehammer is the code name for an alleged military coup plot against the leading Justice and Development Party, or AKP, drafted in 2003.

AND THERE ARE SIGNS THAT THE AKP RULING PARTY THINKS THERE IS A REAL POSSIBILITY THESE ANTI-DE-SECULARIZATION MOVEMENT IS CATCHING ON: THEY'RE ARRESTING JOURNALISTS ATTEMPTING TO COVER THE STORY:

Turkey: Three journalists jailed in connection with Ergenekon investigation

An Istanbul court on Friday ordered three online journalists detained on charges of “inciting hatred and hostility through the media,” membership of a “terrorist organisation” and obtaining and publishing confidential state documents. They are facing possible sentences of more than 20 years in jail, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported

They are Soner Yalçin, the owner of the Oda TV news website, Baris Pehlivan, the site’s editor, and Baris Terkoglu, one of its reporters. They were arrested when counter-terrorism police raided the website’s Istanbul headquarters on the orders of prosecutor Zekeriya Öz on February 14.

The “terrorist organisation” referred to in the charges is Ergenekon, an alleged secret network of senior army officers, academics, businessmen and others who have been on trial since October 2008 on charges of plotting to use terrorist methods to overthrow Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Öz is the prosecutor in charge of the Ergenekon investigation.

The homes of the three journalists were also searched on February 14. A fourth Oda TV journalist, Ayhan Bozkurt, was arrested at the same time, but was released Thursday.

The searches and arrests were carried out after Oda TV questioned some of the judicial procedures use in the Ergenekon investigation and trial.

THIS IS A GOOD SIGN, IN A WAY; WHEN THE TYRANTS START TO ARREST JOURNALISTS, THEN YOU KNOW THEY THINK THEY'RE IN TROUBLE!

THESE DEMONSTRATIONS AND THE AKP'S TYRANNICAL REPRISALS MAY FURTHER IGNITE A REBELLION. (I HOPE SO!)

YOU KNOW, AT BEST, ALL WE CAN HOPE FOR IN EGYPT IS A PRE-AKP TURKISH DEMOCRACY.

BUT EVEN TURKEY - WITHOUT A STRONG PRO-SECULAR/NON-DEMOCRATIC MILITARY - COULDN'T MAINTAIN IT'S COMMITMENT TO EITHER DEMOCRACY, PLURALISM, OR SECULARISM;

THEREFORE, THE EGYPTIAN MILITARY IS BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE:

• IF THE EGYPTIAN MILITARY ALLOWS FURTHER DEMOCRATIZATION IT MIGHT LEAD TO FURTHER ISLAMIZATION,

• AND THAT WOULD LEAD TO A MILITARY THAT IS SUBJUGATED TO MULLAHS,

• SOMETHING THE MILITARY MIGHT NOT WANT AND MIGHT FIGHT AGAINST,

• AS TURKEY'S MILITARY DID REPEATEDLY BETWEEN 1960 AND 1997.

THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE IS A PREREQUISITE FOR A PLURALISTIC DEMOCRACY.

• WITHOUT SECULARISM THERE CAN BE NO DEMOCRACY.

• IT'S AS BASIC AS FULL HUMAN RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE --- INCLUDING WOMEN.

• ON BOTH COUNTS - SECULARISM AND ANTI-MISOGYNISM - THE MUSLIM WORLD FAILS MISERABLY, AND THIS IS WHY THEY ARE SO UNCIVILIZED AND UNDEMOCRATIC.

WHY ARE MOST MUSLIMS SO INTENT ON HAVING AN ISLAMIC STATE WITH SHARIA, A STATE WHICH IS TYRANNICAL AND MISOGYNISTIC?

IT'S THE ISLAM, STUPID!