Turkey arrests 40 linked with coup plot

Turkey has arrested more than 40 people, including high ranking officers, in connection with an alleged military plot against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"This morning our security forces began a detention process," the prime minister told a news conference during an official visit to Spain.

"As of now, more than 40 people have been detained," he added.

According to Turkish media, former air force chief Ibrahim Firtina, former navy chief Ozden Ornek and other high-ranking officers both retired and on active service in Ankara, Istanbul, the western city of Izmir and the northwestern
city of Bursa, were among the detainees.

They also included at least five other retired top officials, among them Ergin Saygun, the former First Army commander and retired admirals Ahmet Feyyaz Ogutcu and Lutfi Sancar, the reports said.

Those held were brought to Istanbul for questioning by anti-terror police, AFP reported.

The detainees arrested over alleged links to a purported 2003 plot, which was revealed by the liberal Taraf daily in January.

The daily published what it described as a document drafted in April by a navy colonel on blocking efforts by Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party from "destroying Turkey's secular order and replacing it with an Islamist state."

Turkish military chief, Gen. Ilker Basburg, however, dismissed the allegations saying as far as the military investigators were concerned the document was fake.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119232§ionid=351020204.