Coup case opens army to judicial investigation

Ankara: Prosecution of a right-wing group accused of trying to topple EU aspirant Turkey's Islamist-rooted government has shattered taboos by opening the powerful military to judicial investigation.

Liberals hope the case could go even further by leading to an historic rupture with a "deep state" establishment - meaning hardline nationalists in Turkey's security forces and state bureaucracy -which they say resists reform.

But the ruling AK Party has a tough task to show the case, which opens in court in less than three weeks, is not a witch hunt against opponents.

If it collapses, the government could face accusations by militant secularists of trying to impose its own Islamist order by exerting pressure on the judiciary.

Emptying the intestines

"We still don't know where the investigation is going, but one thing is for sure: Turkey is changing," said Baskin Oran, a professor and author at Ankara University. "The military is not untouchable any more. Turkey is emptying its intestines."

More than 100 people, including two retired generals, have been detained in a 15-month nationwide investigation, increasing already high political tension.

The military, which has unseated four elected governments in the last 50 years, denies any link to the group, known as Ergenekon.

But the arrests of the two senior retired generals in July were unprecedented in a country where the military has long enjoyed a virtually untouchable status.