01/07/2009
ANKARA, Turkey -- A civilian court ordered on Wednesday (July 1st) the arrest of Navy Colonel Dursun Cicek, who is suspected of drafting a plan to destabilise the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) government. He was detained on charges of membership in an illegal organisation and conspiring to discredit the government. Cicek is now being held at a military prison in Istanbul.
On Tuesday, prosecutors in charge of another controversial probe -- the Ergenekon case -- questioned nine military officers and then requested Cicek's arrest. He is the alleged author of a leaked document published by the liberal daily Taraf in June. It set out tactics designed to break popular support for the AKP and one of its influential supporters, the religious movement of Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen. (Hurriyet, Milliyet, Vatan - 01/07/09)