Case seen as test of Turkey's ability to ditch authoritarian past and become fully-fledged democracy

This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

The opening of a long-awaited trial billed as an attempt to expose Turkey's so-called "deep state" was delayed amid chaotic scenes today after the court was overwhelmed by nationalist demonstrators and journalists.

In an atmosphere of rising tension, the hearing in the town of Silivri, near Istanbul, was adjourned for several hours after judges decided that the tiny courtroom was too overcrowded for the trial to begin.

As hundreds of Turkish flag-waving supporters of the 86 accused gathered outside the court, lawyers inside complained that the crowded conditions inside prevented them from working properly.

The trial eventually started several hours later but was subsequently adjourned again until Thursday.

The delay marked a farcical beginning to a case seen by many as a litmus-test of Turkey's ability to ditch its authoritarian past and become a fully-fledged democracy.

The trial is intended to cross-examine a hardline nationalist-secularist group called Ergenekon, which is accused of plotting a series of violent acts calculated to provoke a military coup and unseat the Islamist-leaning Justice and Development party (AKP) government.

The 2,455-page indictment accuses plotters of planning political assassinations and a wave of bombings designed to create a climate of chaos and fear. The trial is expected to last for months, if not years.

It is alleged that the group bombed the headquarters of the secularist newspaper, Cumhurriyet, and tried to make it look like the work of Islamist extremists.

A list of purported assassination targets is said have included the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Nobel prize winning novelist, Orhan Pamuk and the former armed forces chief of staff, Yasar Buyukanit.

Among the accused are a retired army brigadier-general, the leader of an ultra-nationalist party, academics, mafia-linked figures, a secular newspaper columnist and Kemal Kerincsiz, a nationalist lawyer responsible for a spate of prosecutions against prominent writers, including Pamuk, for "insulting Turkishness" under Turkey's notorious Article 301.

The investigation was opened in June last year after a cache of grenades was found hidden in a house in a run-down area of Istanbul.

The scope of the investigation has broadened so much that several of the key figures arrested have not been indicted for today's hearing and are expected to face trial later.

These include two four-star generals arrested in July - Sener Eruygur, former head of the paramilitary gendarmerie and secretary of the pro-Ataturk Kemalist Thought Association, and Hursit Tolon, a former first army commander who is the most senior person linked to the investigation.

The powerful armed forces - which sees itself as the guardian of Turkey's secular constitution - has denied involvement with Ergenekon.

At its heart, the case exposes the deep fissure between secularists - who uphold the vision of the modern Turkish state's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - and social conservatives, who want a more prominent place for Islam.

The investigation's supporters have depicted it as an attempt to unearth unaccountable elements said to have existed within Turkey's military-security apparatus for decades and believed to be responsible for a host of atrocities, including in Turkey's long war against Kurdish militants.

But critics have dismissed it as a politically-motivated attempt by the AKP to weaken the military and other pillars of the secular state. Some have accused the AKP of a witch hunt in revenge for a separate case this year in which the constitutional court narrowly decided against closing it for allegedly plotting to turn Turkey into an Islamic state.

"Of course it's political but it's still a big test for Turkey," said Cengiz Aktar, professor of EU studies at Istanbul's Bahcesehir univeristy.

"Some have linked Ergenekon to the AKP closure case but I think it is so big that it's moved beyond that. It's a test of whether this country is serious about transparency and about getting rid of extra-political elements from its political life.

"But if it's a simple purging element to get rid of bad elements from the military, it won't hold any lasting results. This is my worry."