Group planned gradual coup in Turkey: media

By Hidir Goktas and Selcuk Gokoluk

ANKARA (Reuters) - Documents seized by Turkish police indicate that a shadowy, ultra-nationalist illegal organization planned to trigger a coup to unseat the Turkish government, newspapers reported on Thursday.

The documents detailed a four-point plan, including launching illegal protests on July 7 across 40 provinces, sparking clashes with security forces, and publishing fake documents showing a worsening economy, said the newspaper Sabah, which has close ties to the government.

Police detained 21 people on Tuesday, including two retired senior generals, journalists and politicians, for links to a group known as Ergenekon suspected of trying to engineer a military takeover. All were critics of the government.

They have not yet been charged, but Istanbul's chief prosecutor has prepared an indictment against more than 40 other people arrested over the past year as part of the same probe.

Turkey has had four military coups in the last 50 years.

"Ergenekon may be a criminal organization, and so should be prosecuted, but with its sloppy organization and old men in charge it remains highly doubtful this was anything very serious," said Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based expert on Turkish security issues.

The documents come as the governing AK Party defended itself in court against charges of trying to establish an Islamic state. The party could be closed down, a move that might lead to an early parliamentary election.

"We will try to finish (our oral defense) today," AK Party deputy group chairman Bekir Bozdag told reporters.

The AK Party (AKP) has called for the Constitutional Court to dismiss the case. A ruling is most likely expected in August.

The chief prosecutor of the Court of Appeals also wants 71 leading political figures, including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, banned from party membership for five years.

The EU has criticized the case, saying such political issues should be debated in parliament and decided through the ballot box, not in the courts.

PROLONGED UNCERTAINTY

Turkish assets fell on Thursday as the two events unnerved investors, who fear prolonged political tensions in the European Union-applicant country. Markets are also down on global woes.

"As a result of the recent detentions, tension between Turkey's secular establishment and the AKP is reaching the boiling point," said Wolfango Piccoli, an analyst at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

"Regardless of which camp will prevail at the end, the price is likely to be high for Turkey's social and political stability," Piccoli said in a research note.