Army launches arms cache probe

Istanbul: Turkey's army has detained a lieutenant colonel and launched an inquiry into a weapons cache found in his house during investigation into an alleged coup plot, military headquarters said yesterday.

Eighty-six people, including retired army officers, politicians and lawyers, are on trial in the investigation into the 'Ergenekon' plot by a supposed shadowy right-wing group to overthrow a government which has Islamist roots.

"The legal investigation regarding the suspect and the seized materials is continuing in all dimensions," the military statement said.

Turkish police were carrying out a series of digs in wasteland around the capital Ankara in a search for weapons linked to the alleged plot. Police discovered 30 hand grenades, nine smoke bombs and hundreds of G-3 rifle rounds buried near a deserted house in an Ankara suburb on Monday.

Strained relations

Semi-automatic weap-ons, pistols and hand grenades had previously been found in a search of the officer's house.

In a fresh wave of detentions this week, some 40 people including serving army officers were detained in a case that has further strained relations between an Islamist-rooted government and the establishment of a constitutionally secular country aiming to join the European Union.

Leading members of the judiciary and government ministers this week intensified their war of words over the handling of the investigation, which many secularists see as the ruling AK Party's revenge for a 2008 court case that sought to ban the party for anti-secular activities.

Turkey's association of judges and prosecutors on Monday criticised the government, likening the investigation to the practices of Adolf Hitler.

The ruling AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam, denies this. Turkey's powerful military has unseated governments four times in the past 50 years.