Turkish Prime Ministry Wednesday denied allegations suggesting a connection between detentions under "Operation Ergenekon" on Tuesday and recent meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Land Forces Commander Gen.Ilker Basbug.
A press release from the prime ministry said "Operation Ergenekon" did not come up during the meeting on June 24, adding that such a thing was not legally possible as there was an ongoing investigation and trial process.
Earlier Tuesday, Basbug also denied the allegations, saying, "Iwant to declare openly. The comments, implications and evaluations made on my meeting with Erdogan are not real. The topic of Ergenekon investigation did not come up at all during my meeting with Erdogan."
On Tuesday, 21 people, including two former army commanders, a journalist and the leader of a business group, were detained in operations in the cities of Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya and Trabzon Tuesday morning as part of an investigation into a powerful and illegal organization suspected of plotting to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK) government.
Retired Gen. Sener Eruygur, retired Gen. Hursit Tolon, retired Gen. Ilker Guven and former head of Gendarmerie General Command Intelligence Department Levent Ersoz as well as Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) Chairman Sinan Aygun and the Ankara bureau chief of the radically secularist Cumhuriyet daily Mustafa Balbay were among those taken into police custody.
The four generals are being mentioned as potential accomplices in a diary allegedly kept by a former navy commander detailing failed plans to overthrow the AK Party.
Eruygur was a leading figure among the organizers of so-called republican rallies held ahead of July elections last year in protest of the AK Party government. His name was also mentioned in documents leaked to the press proving the existence of two failed coup attempts called Ayisigi and Sarikiz, plotted when Eruygur was still in the army.
Tolon was known for making frequent appearances at symposiums and conferences organized by ultra nationalists. This is the first time high rank generals are being detained in Turkey.
Eruygur is also head of the secularist Ataturkist Thought Association (ADD), named after the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Birol Basaran, former head of the ADD's Kadikoy chapter and chairman of the Nationalist Businessmen's Association (USIAD), and ADD Kadikoy's current Chairman Coskun Gurel, a former colonel, were also detained.
The detentions came hours ahead of a hearing in the case in which a chief prosecutor is seeking to have the ruling AK Party shut down for alleged Islamist activities.
The prosecutor is due to make an oral argument to the Constitutional Court -- another part of Turkey's secularist establishment.
The AK Party denies the prosecutor's charges, saying they are politically motivated.
Source:Xinhua
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