Reuters/Istanbul
Turkey is investigating a suspected plot by naval officers to attack non-Muslim minorities to discredit the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party, the prime minister’s office said yesterday.
The alleged plan, one of several reported in Turkish media, could add to strains between the secularist military and the government, which is already at odds with the judiciary.
Investors are becoming increasingly concerned by the potential for instability in a country where the military has ousted four governments in 50 years and which is now bidding for European Union membership, although markets did not to react to news of the latest alleged plot.
However earlier this week shares, the lira and bonds were hit by fears that a row over a probe into government-sanctioned wiretapping of judges and prosecutors could eventually result in a bid to ban the ruling AK Party.
The party narrowly survived an attempt in the Constitutional Court to ban it more than a year ago.
The armed forces said it had filed a criminal complaint with the Justice Ministry over the media report on the plot first published in the Taraf newspaper on Thursday.
The military has previously described documents backing similar stories in the past as fake, and says there is a smear campaign.
The alleged “Cage Operation Action Plan” involved bomb attacks, kidnappings and assassinations against non-Muslims, which would then be blamed on Islamist militants, the Islamic-leaning Zaman newspaper reported yesterday in a front page article headlined: “A plan to finish Turkey off.
Frictions between the secularist establishment and the AK Party have surfaced recurrently in recent times. Leaders of the AK Party once belonged to a Islamist party that was banned.
Although overwhelmingly Muslim, Turkey has a secular constitution and the military and the judiciary form the core of the secularist establishment. |
