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Doubts about Turkish justice persist as coup trial ends

After five years, 275 defendants and 40,000 legal documents, the marathon court case against the alleged underground Turkish terrorist organisation Ergenekon finally ended on Monday. Among those accused of planning a coup against the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan were high-ranking military officers, such as former military chief of staff general Ilker Basbug, but also scientists and journalists.

The court acquitted 21 of the accused. But Basburg, who insists he is innocent, and many others were given life prison sentences. Government backers regarded the “trial of the century” at a courtroom in Silivri, outside Istanbul, as a long-overdue reckoning with the so-called “deep state” – an ominous state within a state consisting of anti-democratic forces from, among other groups, the military.

The army, which regards itself as the ultimate guardian of the secular political system established by the founder of the modern Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, has staged several military coups since 1960. Erdogan, in his ten years in office, has dramatically curbed its power.

The so-called Ergenekon trial – the name that prosecutors allege the group called themselves and which refers to the mythical Turkic homeland in Central Asia – has weakened the military even further. The conservative Islamic government in Ankara showed how thin-skinned it remains about military matters during the recent upheavals in Egypt. Erdogan was one of the harshest critics of the military-backed ouster of former president Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood group.

Erdogan denounced the European Union and the United States for not calling the action against the democratically elected government a military coup. Critics in Turkey accuse the Ankara government of using the Energekon trial – the roots of which go back to a hand grenade found in a Istanbul house in 2007 – to prosecute political opponents.

The government contends that the Ergenekon members were planning to stage a series of attacks in order to plunge the country into chaos, allowing the military to declare a state of emergency and overthrow Erdogan’s government. As the trial slowly progressed, more and more defendants were accused of conspiring, in varying degrees, of attempting to weaken or topple the government. Military officials, academics, businessmen, journalists and opposition figures were implicated.

As the government told critics to respect the independence of the judiciary, independent observers criticised the questionable evidence and noted the case’s many contradictions. Before the trial ended, the Cumhuriyet newspaper predicted that the court would issue verdicts which were already fixed at the outset.

The democratically elected government of Erdogan has shown little patience for its critics of late, with his tough stance against nation-wide protests raging since May having come under international criticism. On Saturday, police in Istanbul once again used teargas, water cannon and plastic bullets against demonstrators rallying in the middle of the tourist-filled Istiklal Caddesi shopping boulevard. Video posted on YouTube shows Turkish youths and restaurant patrons being seemingly arbitrarily arrested. It’s doubtful that Erdogan will grant any concessions to his opponents. On the contrary, just recently he described the demonstrators in his country as “pathetic rodents.”

Can Merey, "Doubts about Turkish justice persist as coup trial ends," Business recorder. 2013-08-06.
Keywords: Political science , Political system , Political issues , National issues , Judiciary , Law , Journalists , Scientists , European Union , United States