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Turkey to probe prosecutor pursuing top
general
8.3.2006
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ANKARA, March 8 -
Turkey's Justice Ministry said on Wednesday it was
investigating a regional prosecutor whose efforts to
indict a top general have triggered tensions between
the country's powerful military and the civilian
authorities.
Ferhat Sarikaya, chief prosecutor of Van province,
accuses General Yasar Buyukanit of abusing his
position and setting up an illegal group whose aim
he alleges is to foment unrest in the mainly Kurdish
southeast (Kurdistan-Turkey) and harm Turkey's bid
to join the EU.
The allegations have outraged the military and
embarrassed the government, which has swiftly
distanced itself from the prosecutor's claims and
defended Buyukanit -- number two in Turkey's
military hierarchy.
But some media have claimed elements within the
ruling AK Party, which has Islamist roots, secretly
support the prosecutor's claims because they want to
undermine Buyukanit, an outspoken defender of
Turkey's secular political order.
Buyukanit, who has said he will be happy to defend
himself in court if need be, is tipped to become
chief of the General Staff when incumbent Hilmi
Ozkok retires in August.
"The Justice Ministry's inspection board has
launched an investigation of the Van Republican
Prosecutor Ferhat Sarikaya," the state Anatolian
news agency reported.
It said two inspectors would shortly travel to Van,
(Kurdistan-Turkey) in eastern Turkey, to investigate
the prosecutor.
Buyukanit served in southeast Turkey between 1997
and 2000. Security forces have been battling Kurdish
separatist rebels in the impoverished region since
1984 in a conflict which has claimed at least 30,000
lives.
CLAIMS
The Van prosecutor says the illegal group allegedly
set up by Buyukanit was behind the blowing up of a
bookshop in the eastern town of Semdinli last
November with the aim of provoking the government
into blocking further freedoms for Kurds, thus
jeopardising Turkey's European Union membership
talks.
Sarikaya also accused Buyukanit of trying to
influence the judicial process by praising one of
two paramilitary intelligence agents charged in
connection with the bombing.
The bookshop blast killed one person and sparked
clashes between pro-Kurdish demonstrators and
Turkish security forces in which several more people
were killed.
Reflecting the military's anger over the accusations
levelled against Buyukanit, Ozkok has held emergency
talks with both Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer this week over the
affair.
Erdogan has appealed for calm and has accused
elements within the media and the parliamentary
opposition of trying to stir up tension between the
military and the judiciary for short-term political
gain.
The chief prosecutor of Turkey's Supreme Court, Nuri
Ok, was also quoted on Wednesday as criticising the
Van prosecutor's move, saying the judiciary should
not become an instrument for pursuing political
ends.
Turkey began EU membership talks last October,
though it is not expected to join the wealthy bloc
before 2015 at the earliest. The military has not
opposed Turkey's EU-linked reforms, including those
which clip the army's own powers.
Reuters
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