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General asks Erdogan to check Islamism

Ian Traynor

Chief of Turkish army says forces will act to preserve nation's secular nature

ANKARA: A leading Turkish General issued a stinging attack on the Centre-Right Government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan by warning that the danger of Islamism in the country was reaching "alarming'' levels.

Defying E.U. demands for the military to keep out of politics, General Ilker Basbug, chief of land forces, warned the Erdogan Government that the top brass still saw itself as the ultimate arbiter of Turkey's secular Constitution.

``The Turkish armed forces have always taken sides and will continue to do so in protecting the national state, the unitary state and the secular state,'' he told a ceremony for cadets at a military academy in Ankara. Islamists were ``patiently and systematically'' seeking to erode the secular order.

The robust defence of the military's role in Turkish politics is certain to affect an E.U. assessment of Turkey's bid eventually to join the E.U. The European Commission is to issue a report card on Turkey in November, delayed from next month, and is concerned about curbs on freedom of expression, persecution of the large Kurdish minority and the military's interference in democratic politics, as well as Turkey's dispute with E.U. members Greece and Cyprus over trade.

Other incidents on Tuesday showed Turkey ignoring E.U. criticism, suggesting a rise in hostility ahead of elections next year. Prosecutors filed new charges against the Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink for ``denigrating Turkishness'', an article in the penal code used to muzzle writers and journalists and which Brussels wants scrapped.

In the largest Kurdish city in Turkey, Diyarbakir, the state put 56 Kurdish Mayors on trial for appealing to Denmark to allow a Kurdish exile television station to keep broadcasting. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

General stands trial

AP reports:

A military court on Wednesday opened the trial of a retired general who claimed in published remarks that soldiers carried out bombings under his orders, attacks that were blamed on Kurdish guerrillas.

Lt. Gen. Altay Tokat did not attend his trial in Ankara, citing medical reasons.

He is charged with ``attempting to erode the feeling of trust to commanders and making statements without authorisation,'' the state-owned Anatolia news agency reported.

No one was killed or injured in the bombings, which targeted empty areas near the houses of judges or civilian officials and were apparently aimed at influencing officials to take a harder line against Kurdish rebels.

Lt. Gen. Tokat's remarks were first published by a magazine and were headlined by a newspaper in June.

His remarks were not the first time that soldiers were under suspicion for carrying out attacks and blaming them on rebels.

In November, two paramilitary police officers tossed a grenade into a bookstore owned by a former Kurdish rebel, Seferi Yilmaz, in the town of Semdinli near the Iraqi border. Mr. Yilmaz survived and chased down his attackers, who turned out to be non-commissioned officers with suspected ties to top generals.

In June, a court sentenced the two paramilitary officers to nearly 40 years in prison after finding them guilty of trying to kill Mr. Yilmaz, who was separately jailed on charges of membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

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