Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey has arrested the highest level military official on
charges of plotting against the Islamic government of Prime Minister Recep
Erdogan.

Former Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug was imprisoned as part of the
latest crackdown on secular opponents of the Erdogan government.

Erdogan, deemed a close friend of U.S. President Barack Obama, has been accused of using the so-called Ergenekon plot to jail his secular opponents. Hundreds of military and security officers as well as journalists and attorneys have been charged during the three-year-old investigation.

In August 2011, the chief of staff as well as the heads of the Army,
Navy and Air Force resigned in protest of the arrest of senior officers
accused of plotting the coup.

In all, the military, now led by Erdogan-appointee Gen. Necdet Ozel, has reported the
detention of 58 generals and admirals.

Basbug, who retired in 2010, became the highest-ranking officer to be linked to an
alleged military plot against the Islamic government in Ankara.

“We can say it is really tragicomic to accuse somebody who commands such an army of forming and directing a terrorist group,” Basbug told a Turkish court on Jan. 5. “I leave it to the great Turkish nation to judge.”

By the following day, Basbug, long seen as a secular opponent of
Erdogan, was arrested and held in a prison near Istanbul. The attorney of the former military commander, Ilkay Sezer, said his client was interrogated for seven hours and denied accusations that he ordered military funding of web sites meant to discredit Erdogan and his government in 2009.

“I was not asked one serious question during my time with the
prosecutor,” Basbug said.

“There is a great normalization process in Turkey,” Deputy Prime

Minister Besir Atalay, who is also interior minister, said.

But the opposition Republican People’s Party said the arrest of Basbug,
criticized by Turkish newspapers on Jan. 7, marked a political decision
approved by the Erdogan-dominated judicial
system. The party cited the use of special prosecutors and courts to
investigate the alleged coup plot.

“We have no faith in these special courts,” opposition leader Kemal
Kilicdaroglu said.

The United States was said to have given mixed messages in face of
Erdogan’s crackdown. As Basbug was being interrogated on Jan. 7, U.S. Vice President
Joseph Biden telephoned Erdogan in a discussion that focused on regional
cooperation. At the same time, the State Department, which reported
high-level American concern, said it would monitor the trial of the alleged
coup plotters.

“We are watching this carefully and continuing to make clear our strong
concerns about press freedom in Turkey to the Turkish government,” State
Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland said.

“We have to see whether this
trial goes forward in a manner that is consistent with international
standards, consistent with international human rights. So that’s the
standard by which we’ll judge it.”

  Barack Obama, Besir Atalay, Ergenekon, Gen. Ilker Basbug, Gen. Necdet Ozel, Ilkay Sezer, Joseph Biden, Recep Erdogan, Turkey’s ex-chief of staff jailed as Islamist crackdown on military continues, Victoria Nuland