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Turkey's Leaders Meet with Military Chief Over Coup Plot

   VOA News 25 February 2010
   Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
   meet  with  Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug in Ankara, Turkey, 25 Feb
   2010

Photo: AP

   Turkish  President  Abdullah  Gul  (C) and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
   Erdogan  (L) meet with Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug (R) in Ankara,
   Turkey, 25 Feb 2010

   Turkey's  political leaders have met with the country's military chief
   to  discuss  a  government  crackdown over an alleged military plot to
   overthrow the government.
   Turkey's  Prime  Minister  Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah
   Gul  met  Thursday with the country's military commander General Ilker
   Basburg,  after  mass  arrests  of  military officials raised tensions
   between the secular armed forces and the Islamist-rooted government.
   Their  meeting  came as an Istanbul court ordered eight more officials
   jailed  to await trial, bringing the total number of military suspects
   in the case to 20.
   Earlier  this week, Turkish authorities arrested some 50 officers over
   the alleged plot.
   Reports  say  the plan aimed to destabilize the government by planting
   bombs in mosques and provoking Greece to shoot down a Turkish jet.
   The   mass   arrests  highlight  deepening  tension  between  Turkey's
   Islamist-rooted  ruling  party, the Justice and Development Party, and
   the  military,  which  considers  itself the guardian of the country's
   secular tradition.
   The military has ousted four Turkish governments in the past 50 years.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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