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Istanbul: Eighty-six people were indicted on charges of plotting to overthrow a government accused by militant secularists of leading Turkey by stealth towards Islamic rule.
Some opponents of the government, which denies any secret Islamist agenda, call the controversial coup case revenge for court moves to outlaw the ruling AK Party and ban Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul from party politics.
Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin filed the indictment on Monday after months of intense media speculation about the case, that has hit financial markets and unsettled foreign investors who have helped fire strong economic growth.
"The indictment covers crimes such as forming an armed terror group ... and attempting to overthrow the government by force," Engin told reporters at a news conference in the garden of an Istanbul court house.
Cache of explosives
The indictment targets the shadowy ultra-nationalist group, Ergenekon, which first came to light a year ago when a cache of explosives was discovered in a police raid on an Istanbul house.
The near 2,500-page indictment named 86 defendants, of which 48 are in custody. They include the head of a small nationalist party, a nationalist newspaper editor and retired army officers.
It was not clear which defendants were facing which charges. The charges also include incitement to armed insurrection, aiding a terror group and possession of explosives.
Vural Ergul, a lawyer for one of the suspects, criticised the investigation in comments after the indictment was filed, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.
Last week, two senior retired generals, leading businessmen and journalists, all critical of AK, were arrested.
The powerful military leadership denies any link to Ergenekon; but a power struggle between rival elites, one centred on the militant secularist establishment and the other on government supporters, seems now to be playing out in the Turkish courts.
Timeline
In the past 50 years, military coups have unseated four elected governments in Turkey. Here are some details:
1960: On May 2, an almost bloodless military coup was carried out, led by officers and cadets from the Istanbul and Ankara war colleges.
Three former ministers, including Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, were executed and 12 others, including President Celal Bayar, had death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
1971: The 'Coup by Memorandum': The military delivered a warning to the government to restore order after months of strikes and street fighting between leftists and nationalists. Some months later, Prime Minister Sulaiman Demirel stepped down and a coalition of conservative politicians and technocrats set to restore order under the supervision of the military.
1980: On September 12, 1980, the senior command of the army led by General Kenan Evren, carried out a bloodless coup. The action followed a resurgence of street fighting between leftists and nationalists. Leading politicians were arrested, and parliament, political parties, and trade unions were dissolved.
1997: The 'Post-Modern Coup': On June 18, 1997 Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, denounced by opponents as a danger to the country's secular order, stepped down under pressure.
2008: Sener Eruygur, once head of the paramilitary gendarmerie, and Hursit Tolon, the former first army commander, were arrested last week on suspicion of leading a terrorist group aiming to overthrow the government.
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