Coup plot: Turkey ex-army chief held

It is very sad,and hard to understand, he said during a 12-hour interrogation,NTV said. If authorities have failed to discover any of this misconduct that I am claimed to have committed in active duty,then all is incomprehensible. The civilian court in Istanbul ordered the general jailed pending his trial on charges of seeking to overthrow the government. His arrest appeared to be the latest skirmish in a power struggle between the pro-Islamic governing party,Justice and Development,and the secular establishment,which includes the army.

The government has jailed more than 300 people,including more than 200 active or retired military officers,as part of an investigation into what is said to be a plot in 2003 by the ultranationalist Ergenekon network to bomb mosques,assassinate prominent figures or start wars to stir chaos and prepare the grounds for a military coup. No one has yet been convicted.

The military,which has long seen itself as the defender of Turkeys secular Constitution,has carried out three successful coups. The governing party,which is rooted in a banned Islamist group,has insisted that the military is no longer beyond the law. The party has said that it is building a religiously tolerant democracy.

The rivalry intensified in July when the chief of the armed forces and the commanders of the navy,army and air force resigned en masse to protest the arrests of dozens of generals in conspiracy investigations they contend are politically motivated.