Thirty-three suspects, among them three admirals, will stand trial in Turkey over alleged plans to carry out attacks against non-Muslim minorities in a bid to discredit the government, the Anatolia news agency reported Friday.
The charges were laid out in the latest indictments to emerge from an investigation into the alleged Ergenekon network, accused of plans to plunge Turkey into chaos and prompt a military coup against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement.
The 33 suspects, who also include several navy officers, risk up to 15 years in jail for "membership of a terrorist organisation" in the trial that will start on June 15, Anatolia said. They are blamed for an alleged plot, codenamed "Cage Action Plan", detailing a series of attacks against the Christian, Jewish and Armenian minorities.
Under the March 2009 plan - first published by the daily Taraf newspaper in November - the suspects planned to carry out bomb attacks in minority-populated neighbourhoods in Istanbul and the western city of Izmir, and to kidnap and assassinate prominent members of the communities.
They planned to blame Islamist militants for the attacks, thus increasing pressure on the Islamist-rooted government and paving the way for its overthrow, according to Taraf. Media reports said the case could be merged two other cases in which 31 suspects, most of them navy officers, stand accused of an alleged plot to kill two admirals and blow up a submarine displayed in an Istanbul museum in a bid to destabilise Turkey.
Dozens of defandants, including several military figures, are already on trial as part of the investigation into the Ergenekon network. Last month, prosecutors also charged 40 military figures in a separate investigation into a 2003 army plot to topple the AKP.
The government says the investigations will help to improve democracy, but opponents charge that the AKP is seeking to disable the military - which sees itself as guardian of the secular system - and realise its alleged secret plan to Islamicise the nation.