TURKEY: Former head of First Army Hasan Igsiz arrested pending trial on charges of disseminating propaganda against ruling AK Party government

Record ID: 809223

  • Title: TURKEY: Former head of First Army Hasan Igsiz arrested pending trial on charges of disseminating propaganda against ruling AK Party government
  • Date: 11th August 2011
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (AUGUST 10, 2011) (TV8) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) CONVOY ARRESTED GENERAL IGSIZ LEAVING THE COURTHOUSE
  • Embargoed: 26th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAB11X4AF7101G3EA3DQFTO5MY
  • Story Text: A Turkish court ordered the jailing on Wednesday (August 10) of a top retired army commander charged with orchestrating an Internet campaign to discredit the ruling AK Party, state media said, further widening investigations of anti-government conspiracies.
    The jailing of Hasan Igsiz, former head of the prestigious First Army, followed the appointment last week of four new commanders to head the armed forces in a shake-up seen strengthening civilian control of NATO's second biggest army.
    He is one of 22 defendants accused of "attempting to overthrow the government or obstruct its activities by force" and membership of an insurgent armed group, according to an indictment accepted by the court at the end of last month.
    The retired general had been in line to take over the army at a meeting of the YAS meeting a year ago but was forced into retirement amid government opposition to his appointment as the Internet case investigation gathered pace.
    The trial, dubbed the "Internet Memorandum", emerged out of a broader court investigation of allegations that an ultra-nationalist network dubbed "Ergenekon" had attempted to overthrow the government.
    The indictment accused "number one suspect" Igsiz and other defendants of "organising and implementing black propaganda and disinformation activities through internet sites, with the aim of creating an environment for military intervention."
    Among the defendants of the case is also General Nusret Tasdeler, former head of the Aegean Army, who was last week appointed as the ground forces' education and doctrine commander by the Supreme Military Council (YAS).
    Some 250 military personnel have been jailed pending trial over alleged anti-government conspiracies and General Staff frustration at their jailing burst to the surface when the top four commanders quit ahead of last week's Supreme Military Council (YAS) meeting.
    General Necdet Ozel, previously head of the paramilitary gendarmerie, was named as new armed forces chief at the meeting.
    The shock departure of Ozel's predecessor Isik Kosaner and the heads of the ground forces, navy and air force, was the culmination of years of tensions between the secularist armed forces and a government which has roots in a banned Islamist party.
    The military carried out three coups between 1960-1980 and pressured and Islamist-led government from power in 1997, but its powers have been curbed in the process of EU-backed reforms designed to strengthen democracy.
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