Turkey charges two officers in coup case

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Two Turkish military officers were charged on Sunday over a plot to unseat the government, media said on Monday, the latest to be charged in a crackdown that has raised tension between the government and military. More than 30 military officers, including two retired generals, have been charged in connection with an alleged 2003 plot to overthrow the government, which has roots in political Islam. The operations, in a country where the secularist military has a long history of intervention in politics, has shaken markets. State run Anatolian said Colonel Huseyin Ozcoban, commander of the paramilitary gendarmerie forces in the city of Konya, and Lieutenant Colonel Yusuf Kelleli, were charged late on Sunday in an Istanbul court. The two were arrested in an unprecedented investigation last week that prompted an emergency summit among political and military leaders in the European Union-candidate country. The military has overthrown four governments in Turkey in the past 50 years, but has seen its power diminished in the face of EU-inspired reforms. Despite Turkeys history of military coups, most people believe the generals would not dare challenge the AK Party, which has a huge parliamentary majority, and destroy newfound confidence in democracy. Analysts fear that politics appear increasingly polarised between the secular, conservative nationalists who represent the old guard and the AK Party, which has won over investors with market-friendly reforms.

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