Jul 17th 2008 | ISTANBUL
From The Economist print edition

A case is also brought against those planning a coup against the government

WHAT do a retired general, a business tycoon, a convicted murderer and a rabbi have in common? They may all be part of an ultra-nationalist gang called Ergenekon that is bent on overthrowing Turkey’s AKP government. Its modus operandi is allegedly to spread disinformation, plant bombs, kill prominent citizens and foment such mayhem that the army will intervene.

On July 14th prosecutors charged 86 people with being involved in plotting against the AKP. Aykut Cengiz Engin, Istanbul’s chief prosecutor, said the group’s alleged crimes included the murder of a secular judge in Ankara in 2006 by a gunman who said he was avenging a court ruling against the Islamic headscarf. Mr Engin said a long indictment would be brought before an Istanbul court, which has a fortnight to decide whether to take the case.

Ergenekon (the name of a mythical homeland from which Turkic tribes were led by a she-wolf) has riveted the public ever since a cache of weapons was found in a retired officer’s basement in Istanbul. Some of them bore army serial numbers. Yet many believed the affair would be hushed up, like earlier scandals that exposed the links between security officials and organised crime.

Then in June came the mass arrests of around 50 people said to be involved in Ergenekon, among them a shady retired general, Veli Kucuk. Mr Kucuk is alleged to have had a hand in the extra-judicial killings of Kurdish nationalists in the 1990s. More recently his name was linked to the murder of Hrant Dink, an outspoken ethnic Armenian editor, in Istanbul last year. The stakes were raised on July 1st with the arrest of two more retired generals for allegedly plotting two abortive coups against the AKP in 2004 . Details of the plans were found in the leaked diaries of a former navy commander. Prosecutors are preparing a separate indictment against the men, and the army is co-operating.

This confounds the popular theory that Ergenekon is part of the struggle between the AKP and the top brass. Indeed, exhilarated liberals say the case proves that the army is no longer untouchable. But some doubt it. A columnist for Milliyet, a daily, reminded readers about a coup-maker “who darkened millions of lives”. She was referring to Kenan Evren, the army chief who led the 1980 coup. He now lives in a seaside village painting nudes. Sacit Kayasu, a lawyer who tried to bring the ex-general to justice in 2000, has been struck off.