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Former Turkish army chief faces arrest on charge of plotting to over

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  • Former Turkish army chief faces arrest on charge of plotting to over

    Xinhua General News Service, China
    January 5, 2012 Thursday 4:25 PM EST


    Former Turkish army chief faces arrest on charge of plotting to
    overthrow government

    ISTANBUL Jan. 5


    Istanbul public prosecutor Thursday demanded the arrest of former
    Turkish army chief Gen. Ilker Basbug on charges of leading a terrorist
    organization and attempting to overthrow the Turkish government, state
    media reported.

    Public prosecutor with special authority Cihan Kansiz took the
    testimony of former chief of general staff and retired Gen. Basbug as
    a suspect under an investigation launched by Istanbul deputy chief
    prosecutor's office.

    The prosecutor charged Basbug with leading a terrorist organization
    and attempting to overthrow the Turkish government. Basbug arrived at
    an Istanbul courthouse and testified as a suspect in an ongoing case
    for seven hours.

    It is the first time in Turkey's history that a former chief of staff
    is being testified by a prosecutor.

    The ongoing Internet Memorandum case refers to an alleged document by
    the General Staff about setting up 42 Internet sites to distribute
    propaganda against the ruling Justice and Development Party, the
    outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), as well as Greeks and
    Armenians.

    General Basbug, who retired in 2010, is the highest-ranking officer to
    be caught up in a widening probe into the so-called Ergenekon network,
    an ultra-nationalist group accused by prosecutors of conspiring to
    topple the government.

    Several hundred defendants, including retired senior officers,
    lawyers, academics and journalists, have been put on trial in cases
    relating to the investigation.

    Turkey's military, NATO's second-largest army, has long seen itself as
    the guarantor of the country's secular constitution, and had carried
    out three coups between 1960 and 1980 and pressured another government
    from power in 1997.


    From: Baghdasarian
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