– Uso del giudiziario nella lotta intestina del partito turco al governo (AKP), con richieste di sentenze esemplari contro generali legati ad Erdogan:
– La decennale lotta contro le forze armate è stata uno dei fattori di intesa nell’AKP:
· i generali turchi hanno deposto 4 governi dal 1960, e comandano la seconda maggiore forza Nato, dopo quella USA.
– Con l’apparente marginalizzazione dei militari si starebbero sfilacciando i legami tra Erdogan e Fetullah Gulen, un imam turco che abita negli Usa e leader di un movimento che si ritiene controlli le autorità giudiziarie turche.
· 275 le persone imputate per aver creato un’organizzazione terroristica chiamata Ergenekon, allo scopo di abbattere il governo; tra questi il generale in pensione Ilker Basbug, il cui arresto è stato pubblicamente criticato da Erdogan.
· Tra le attività imputate a Ergenkon l’assassinio di un giudice a Ankara, l’attacco armato al giornale repubblicano laico Cumhuriyet, e nel 2007 l’uccisione di 3 cristiani a Malatya, e manifestazioni di massa contro il governo.
– Il processo Ergenekon (uno dei due processi per complotto in corso), inizialmente aveva un ampio consenso popolare, è poi divenuto motivo di proteste e di profonde divisioni nella coalizione di governo, Il Partito Giustizia e Sviluppo (AKP), proveniente da un partito islamista abbattuto dai militari nel 1997 e poi messo fuori legge. Lo scorso novembre fu rivelato che uno dei testimoni segreti al processo era Semdin Sakik, ex leader del PKK.
· Le pesanti sentenze richieste sono un avvertimento a Erdogan a non emarginare i vecchi alleati.
– Secondo gli analisti il messaggio della fazione Gulen, che comprende il movimento religioso più potente della Turchia (Movimento Gulen, appunto) sarebbe: “non puoi negoziare la questione curda senza il nostro permesso, e senza la nostra partecipazione”.
· I negoziati di pace con il PKK (un conflitto che vittime in 30 anni ha causato oltre 40 000 vittime) sono iniziati nel settembre 2012 con Abdullah Ocalan, che è in carcere. Erdogan conta sulla soluzione della questione curda (i curdi cono il 20% dei 75 milioni di cittadini turchi) per intascare a riforma della Costituzione che gli consenta di rimanere al potere fino al 2024, come presidente, anziché primo ministro.
· Nel 2012 Erdogan ha fatto frequenti dichiarazioni a sostegno delle forze armate, criticando i processi per complotto e le procure.
– A settembre le procure hanno intascato la prima vittoria con la condanna di 300 ufficiali, in pensione e attivi, nel caso di tentato colpo di Stato, chiamato Balyoz.
Turkey Coup-Plot Trial Signals Political Split for Erdogan
ISTANBUL—Turkey’s prosecutors asked a court Monday to sentence the former chief of the armed forces to life imprisonment for allegedly plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, firing the latest salvo in a case that has divided the country and stripped the once-powerful military of much of its political influence.
– Retired General Ilker Basbug, the highest-ranked defendant in one of Turkey’s two coup-plot trials, is among 275 people on trial over charges that they formed a terrorist organization called Ergenekon to spur unrest and prepare the ground for the military to force the government from power.
State prosecutors asked Monday that at least 10 defendants, including Mr. Basbug and three other generals, be sentenced to life imprisonment for seeking to overthrow the government by use of force. They also sought prison terms ranging from seven-and-a-half years to 15 years for other members of the group which included lawmakers, academics and journalists.
– The Ergenekon trial has gone from enjoying broad-based support in Turkey to becoming a highly controversial locus of protests as well a cause of deep splits in the conservative coalition that has helped Mr. Erdogan cement his power over the past decade.
– The prosecution’s heavy-handed treatment of the defendants—in terms of requested sentences and imprisonment during the trial—is a warning to the prime minister not to side-line old allies, analysts say, as he is taking historic steps to end a three-decade Kurdish insurgency, while also pushing for a constitutional reform that would restructure the state under a strong presidency Mr. Erdogan could occupy until 2024.
– One of the unifying forces within the governing Justice and Development Party, which has its roots in an Islamist party the military ousted from power in 1997 and courts subsequently closed, has been its decadelong power struggle with the staunchly secularist armed forces.
– Turkey’s generals have deposed four governments since 1960 and command the second largest force in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after the U.S.
– But with the military apparently sidelined, analysts say ties are fraying between Mr. Erdogan and Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish imam based in the U.S. and leader of a movement widely believed to dominate Turkey’s prosecutorial authorities.
– "I have a difficult time interpreting these decisions as genuine ones taken by an independent judiciary. I see the judiciary clique that is close to the Gulen movement giving a message to Erdogan, telling him to watch his step.
– They’re saying you can’t negotiate an end to the Kurdish issue without our permission," said Atilla Yesilada, an analyst at Global Source Partners in Istanbul. "Asking for life imprisonment for Basbug, whose arrest Erdogan openly criticized, is an especially strong signal to the prime minister."
– Turkish officials started peace talks in September with Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Analysts say the latest engagement is Turkey’s most serious effort to end a three-decade fight with the PKK that has cost more than 40,000 lives. Previous efforts collapsed amid public opposition to official talks with the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.
– Mr. Erdogan is banking on a successful resolution of Turkey’s so-called Kurdish issue to also gain enough support for the constitutional reform and strengthening of the presidency, analysts say. Kurds make up about 20% of Turkey’s 75 million citizens.
– Yet Mr. Gulen’s followers, comprising Turkey’s most powerful religious movement, may not let the premier act alone and want to partake in the process, according to analysts.
– In the past year, Mr. Erdogan has frequently come out in support of Turkey’s armed forces, uncharacteristically criticizing the coup-plot trials and the prosecution. Waves of arrests targeting officers are stripping the military of commanders, Mr. Erdogan warned, and argued that it was unfair to imprison some of the defendants, including the former chief of staff Mr. Basbug.
– "This is causing significant losses in terms of morale and motivation to Turkey’s armed forces," Mr. Erdogan has said. "The judiciary can’t wield power over the executive, or vice versa. Everyone needs to serve within the framework defined by the constitution. It’s a big mistake and an unpardonable thing to say that any of our generals, led by our chief of staff, are members of a terrorist organization."
– Prosecutors scored their first victory in September, when another court in Istanbul found more than 300 former and active military officers guilty in a separate coup-plot case known as Balyoz, or Sledgehammer. The decision was hailed by the government’s allies as a step toward more democracy, while defendants and their supporters said it proved the judiciary wasn’t independent and simply carried out the regime’s orders. At the time, Mr. Erdogan declined to comment, citing the appeals process.
– In the Ergenekon case, prosecutors charge that the defendants formed a terrorist organization aimed at destabilizing the country to prepare the grounds for a coup. Among the activities attributed to Ergenkon are the 2006 assassinations of a judge in Ankara and the bombing of secularist-republican Cumhuriyet newspaper the same year, the 2007 murder of three Christians in Malatya and mass demonstrations against the government that year.
– In the beginning, the prosecutorial authorities enjoyed wide-ranging civilian support for their case, as the public backed the government’s efforts to curb the military’s decadeslong political domination.
– Yet after long pretrial arrests, a refusal to allow two imprisoned republican lawmakers to take their seats in parliament after the June 2011 elections, and arguments resting on the testimony of 31 secret witnesses, swaths of the population have since turned against the case. The final straw came in November, when it was revealed that one of the secret witnesses was Semdin Sakik, a former leader of the PKK.
– Mr. Basbug, the former chief of Turkey’s military who has been imprison since January 2012 under the Ergenkon case, said the mere selection of witnesses illustrates that the trial is a farce.
"On the one hand, there’s the accusation that the 26th chief of General Staff and one-time general in Turkey’s armed forces ‘formed and operated a terrorist organization,’ on the other hand, there’s the testimony of a witness, a terrorist with bloodstained hands who is an enemy of the Republic of Turkey and the defendants, who is being heard in a Turkish court," Mr. Basbug had said. "Let the great people of Turkey decide."
—Yeliz Candemir also contributed to this article