Author: Ekmekjian Janet

ARMENIAN-AMERICAN SOPRANO ANI MALDJIAN TO STAR IN FESTIVAL OPERA’S

NewsBlaze
July 24 2008
CA

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – opening August 9

Former two-time San Francisco Opera Merola Program participant Ani
Maldjian will replace Marnie Breckenridge in the role of Tytania in
Festival Opera’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, opening August 9, 2008.

Breckenridge had been given permission by Festival Opera to bow
out so that she could accept an invitation by the Glyndebourne
Opera Festival to cover the lead role in the world premiere of
Peter Eotvos’ Love and Other Demons on August 10 – 30, following
a critically-acclaimed turn at English National Opera in the role
of Cunegonde for Candide. Maldjian was the Western Regional winner
of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2005, and a
national finalist in 2006. She has participated in Seattle Opera’s
Young Artist program for the last two years. Maldjian was notified
on Monday by Festival Opera that she had the part, leaving her only
six days to learn the role prior to arriving in Walnut Creek for the
start of rehearsals under director Michael Morgan on Monday.

Festival Opera’s production of Benjamin Britten’s adaptation of
Shakespeare’s romantic comedy will also feature countertenor William
Sauerland as Oberon, Kurt Krikorian as Puck (spoken), bass Kirk
Eichelberger as Bottom, baritone Igor Vieira as Theseus, mezzo-soprano
Lauren Groff as Hippolyta, tenor Jorge Garza as Lysander, baritone
Nikolas Nackley as Demetrius, mezzo-soprano Jessica Mariko Deardorff
as Hermia, and soprano Stacey Cornell as Helena. Set design will be
by Peter Crompton and costume design by Susanna Douthit.

Maldjian was not aware she had an exceptional voice until the age
of nine, when a choir teacher suggested she consider a singing
career. However, she thought it would be in pop music. Instead,
Maldjian immediately took to opera upon hearing it for the first time
at the California Institute of the Arts, which she entered at 16 and
graduated with a B.A. in fine arts at 20. She went on to obtain a
M.A. from California State University in Northridge.

Considered one of the country’s fast-rising sopranos, she was
the toast of Southern California last year for her tour-de-force
performance in Russian composer Grigori Frid’s one-woman opera,
The Diary of Anne Frank, at Long Beach Opera. Among other accolades,
Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed wrote that Frid’s "vocal writing
fits the words closely and offers a technical and emotional tour
de force for a game soprano. [Artistic director] Mitisek found just
that soprano in Ani Maldjian. Tuesday at 8 p.m., one might have said
she was an emerging artist in the earliest stages of a career. By
9:30, she had emerged�. Her singing was commanding and brilliant,
fresh and strong from beginning to end�. Discovering talent like
Maldjian’s is no easy feat." And John Farrell of the Los Angeles Daily
News noted: "She sings Frid’s simple, emotional score with elegance
and intelligibility. Maldjian brings Frank to life in a performance
at once understated and fully realized. It is a star turn."

Benjamin Britten’s magical adaptation of the Shakespearean classic has
been praised as "marvelously wrought" and filled with "fantastical
exuberance" by the New York Times. The haunting score is at once
inventive and evocative, and entices the listener deep into the
enchantment of a summer’s night, where anything can happen in the
name of love.

To bring Shakespeare’s ethereal world to life, director Michael Morgan,
who will also conduct, had Crompton create a set out of fabrics
rather than solid objects to represent his vision of the opera as
"light to the point of weightlessness. The sensuality of the forest is
being portrayed by young dancers. The only heaviness will be in the
clumsy but always lovable Rustics (sometimes called the Mechanicals)
and their attempt to win favor by their performance of Pyramus and
Thisby." Morgan has also garnished the story with a 1960’s color
scheme. "My hope is that the visual charm will match the lightness and
transparency of Britten’s most unusual and immediately striking opera
score." Morgan has invited accomplished choreographer Mark Foehringer
to assist him in staging the popular work. "Mark has a wonderful eye
and imagination, as well as a gift for telling a story through motion."

Morgan – who made his debut as an operatic stage director with Festival
Opera’s 2006 production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni – notes that one of
the reasons he was attracted to this project is that "it’s an opera for
any age. The play has a long history of charming audiences, as well
as being heavily edited to mute its sometimes overt sensuality. In
our more easy-going era, I hope both its charm and sweet sensuality
will be appreciated by those who have an eye for it, and that even
the youngest viewers will find it enchanting and entertaining."

Festival Opera executive director Helen Sheaff points out that the
company was fortunate to include William Sauerland in the cast. "There
are so few countertenors today that this will be a rare opportunity to
see one in performance. And Britten’s opera is one of the most famous
countertenor roles, but most companies are limited to using a contralto
or female soprano. So this will be a treat for Bay Area opera lovers."

A Midsummer Night’s Dream opens on Saturday, August 9, at 8 pm. Three
performances follow, on August 12 and 15 at 8 pm, and a Sunday matinee
at 2 pm on August 17. All performances will take place at the Lesher
Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek, CA. Tickets are
$36 – $100. Order online at or call (925)
943-SHOW. For more information, visit

–Boundary_(ID_qz2V0/hSgHU EGRy3iNipew)–

FALSE INFORMATION

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 23, 2008
Armenia

According to the Mass Media reports, defendant Gourguen Yeghyazaryan
announced in a press-conference held yesterday that Vrezh Nikolyan,
who is accused of ordering "hedgehogs", is a relative of Mr. Aghvan
Hovsepyan. Such information is an obvious lie and does not correspond
to the reality.

There are no friendly or family ties between Vrezh Nikolyan and the
Prosecutor General, and such statements are the product of morbid
imagination.

A. Hovsepyan is familiar with the accused as a fellow-townsman like
many others, including such activists who pursue different political
views.

Press Service of the General Prosecutor’s Office

SERZH SARGSYAN ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO ACTIVITY OF ALL ARMENIAN ORGANIZATIONS IN PRESERVATION OF ARMENIAN NATION

NOYAN TAPAN

JU LY 22

RA President Sarzh Sargsyan receiving on July 22 the delegation of the
Armenian Missionary Association of America, led by Executive Director
Andrew Torigian, congratulated them on the occasion of Association’s
90th anniversary and said that it is a good occasion to estimate
the past way. He attached importance to activity of all Armenian
organizations in the sphere of preservation of Armenian nation, their
involvement in Armenia’s life, as well as using the potential of all
Armenians for the sake of the homeland and the Armenian people.

S. Sargsian considered preservation of Armenian nation, repatriation,
complete and purposeful use of Armenians’ abilities the most important
problems of the newly created Ministry of Diaspora.

According to the report provided to Noyan Tapan by the RA President’s
Press Office, the meeting participants briefly presented the history
of creation of the Armenian Missionary Association of America. They
touched upon programs implemented currently by the Association in
different spheres in Armenia and NKR and presented their plans. It
was mentioned that along with charity programs the Association tries
to gradually pass to development programs.

ARMENIA, TURKEY WILL GAIN FROM BILATERAL RELATIONS – PRESIDENT

Interfax News Agency
July 21 2008
Russia

Contacts between Armenia and Turkey never ceased, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan told a press conference on Monday."Contacts between
Armenian and Turkish diplomatic circles never ceased and there is
nothing sensational about Armenian and Turkish representatives meeting
in Bern," he said.

"Both Armenia and Turkey will gain from established relations.

Certainly, in both countries there are people who think the opposite
but this does not mean that we must sit idly by," Sargsyan said.

"The Turkish president’s visit to Armenia may have a positive effect
on the discussion of the existing issues between our countries.

It is very important that there is an emerging trend among the Armenian
and Turkish public toward healthy discussion of the existing problems,"
said the Armenian president.

Asked how long he is willing to wait for the Turkish president’s
reply to the invitation to visit Yerevan, Sargsyan said: "When it
comes to a neighboring country, one does not speak about deadlines,
one has to wait as long as it takes."

There are still no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey.

The 1915 events in the Ottoman Empire remain a stumbling block in the
relations between the two countries. A number of nations recognized
the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Turkey in 1915, which claimed
more than 1.5 million lives. Armenia wants Turkey to recognize the
genocide, but Turkey refuses to do so.

For its part, Ankara demands that the Karabakh conflict be resolved
on the basis of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

WB APPROVES OF PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION IN ARMENIA

ARKA
July 21

The World Bank is content with the results of its programs in Armenia,
WB Director of Infrastructure Sector in Europe and Central Asia Peter
Thompson told Saturday Armenian journalists.

WB has been assisting Armenia since the early 1990s. The initial
focus on WB-Armenia cooperation was energy. Thompson said WB is now
elaborating renewable energy projects with Armenia.

He stressed the importance of WB assistance to the country’s
agriculture and other sectors. Last week the WB Director of
Infrastructure Sector and Armenian government members discussed
WB-Armenia cooperation prospects. The bank will submit its new
four-year assistance program to Armenia by October, Thompson said.

WB has allotted about $1.1bln for 52 credit programs in Armenia. The
International Development Agency (IDA) had extended only lax credits
to the country by 2006. As of July 1, 2006, Armenia gets EBRD loans
for average-income countries.

ERGENEKON INDICTMENT DEEPENS DIVISIONS IN TURKISH POLITICS
Saban Kardas

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
July 18 2008

A suspect in the Ergenekon operation Turkish prosecutors investigating
the Ergenekon network finally submitted their indictment to the court
on July 14. The indictment was presented a year after the network
was first discovered and many influential figures including retired
army generals, journalists, businessmen and academics were arrested or
interrogated as part of the investigation. This delay has caused much
speculation that the investigation was being used by the government
to silence the opposition. The substance of the indictment is also
a matter of contention, because in the wake of different waves of
arrests, the case has evolved from the investigation of a criminal
organization into a probe of a network connected to the "deep state"
with extensions in various sectors of civil society seeking to change
the government, by staging a coup if necessary.

Istanbul’s high criminal court will examine the 2,500-page indictment
and decide whether to accept it and open the case, reject it, or
return it to the prosecutors for amendments. This process may take
up to two weeks, and the court is currently working hard to ensure
that its procedure is compatible with the penal code (CNNTurk, July
16). In the meantime, the indictment cannot be made public; but in
an unusual press briefing, Istanbul’s chief prosecutor summarized
the main charges. There are a total of 86 suspects, of whom 48 are in
custody and 38 temporarily released. It is not clear which ones will
be tried for which crimes. Sections of the indictment have been leaked
to the press as well. The prosecutors accuse the suspects of various
crimes including "membership in an armed terrorist group"; "attempting
to destroy the government of the Republic of Turkey or block it from
performing its duties"; and "being in possession of explosives, using
them, and inciting others to commit these crimes." More importantly,
the prosecutors have established connections between the Ergenekon
network and the 2006 Council of State shooting and an attack at the
daily Cumhuriyet’s Istanbul office. Moreover, the indictment charges
the suspects with inciting several unresolved murders in Turkey’s
recent past, which may lead to the reopening of some closed cases
(CNNTurk, July 14).

The indictment produced mixed reactions from the Turkish political
community and the Turkish media. For some reformists it was a step
toward further democratizing the country, while others found that
it did not live up to expectations. The opposition, in contrast,
believes that the case is highly politicized.

The core of the indictment is its labeling of Ergenekon as a "terrorist
network." It does not include charges related to staging a coup, and
therefore the notorious "coup diaries" are not among the evidence
presented. Treating Ergenekon as a terrorist organization rather
than as a "junta" has enabled critics to argue that the controversy
created previously around the investigation was baseless and that the
pro-government media overstated its case by connecting many unrelated
charges to Ergenekon (Cuneyt Ulsever, Hurriyet, July 15-16). Reformists
see this move as deliberate insofar as the suspects will be tried
by the civilian penal system and a transfer to the military courts
has been prevented. In the notorious Semdinli case, according to the
reformists, the transfer of the file to the military tribunal hijacked
the entire case and thwarted the investigation into the involvement
of military officers in subversive activities (Samil Tayyar, Star,
July 16). For the reformists, the very act of bringing former military
officers to trial under the civilian penal code, together with the
cooperation of the military, is a revolutionary step for the Turkish
political system (Today’s Zaman, July 16).

Avoiding mentioning a "coup" also results from the fact that the
suspects taken into custody in the wave of arrests in early July
are not included in the indictment. Although initially there were
expectations that a complementary indictment for them would be
submitted in the following days, it was later announced that there
would be a separate indictment for them that might be combined with
the original one in the course of trial (Milliyet, July 16, 17).

Because some former and possibly active military personnel and
military-related information were involved, there was speculation
at first that the military had initiated a separate investigation,
but those claims were denied by the military prosecutor (Hurriyet,
July 17). Aksam claimed, however, that the Air Force’s prosecutor was
investigating an illegal formation in Turkish Armed Forces and whether
it was tied to Ergenekon. This formation was allegedly uncovered
by a National Intelligence Service report that was handed over to
the military authorities by the civilian prosecutors in charge of
the Ergenekon case (Aksam, July 18). An article in Taraf, however,
argued that even if the case involved active officers, it would have
to be heard by civilian courts (Taraf, July 15).

For reformists, the case is a revolutionary step for Turkish
democracy. The liberal-left Taraf has already published documents
exposing a new illegal organization named Lobi and revealing its plans
of operation; and it has implied that the Ergenekon investigation
might be deepened further through new waves of arrests (Taraf, July
16). For Sabah, the case is a turning point for democratization and
demilitarization, because it will end a tradition of coups dating
back to the late Ottoman period (Soli Ozel, Sabah, July 17). For
Yeni Safak, it may uncover the Turkish Gladio and normalize Turkey
(Fehmi Koru, Yeni Safak, July 17). The liberal-left Radikal sees the
possibility of reopening unresolved murder cases as a light of hope
for the relatives of victims and for Turkish democracy (Radikal, July
16). In Today’s Zaman Kerim Balci views Ergenekon as "the Copernican
revolution of Turkish republican history…. Starting from the forced
Armenian emigration, I propose [that] each and every illegal event
in our recent past be reopened and re-judged" (Today’s Zaman, July
17). Some observers have even speculated that Ergenekon is tied to
the PKK (Bugun, July 17).

Skeptics caution against those exaggerated claims and maintain
that lumping together any and all past cases and blaming them on
Ergenekon and tying all leftist, rightist, Islamist, and nationalist
groups to Ergenekon could inflate expectations. It could, moreover,
turn into a defamation campaign (Fikret Bila, Milliyet, July 17). The
opposition Birgun (July 17) responded to these claims with the headline
"Ergenekon: The new detergent!"

Whether it is a decisive moment in Turkish politics or a feint
used to suppress the opposition and deflect attention away from the
government’s legal problems will be seen as the case progresses. The
Ergenekon case has in any event already shaped public opinion: First,
the leaked information, whether true or false, has created a climate
in which the majority of people believe that the "deep state" seeks
to remove the ruling AKP from power through whatever means. Second,
it has brought the judicial system’s credibility into question. Taken
together with the closure case and the divisions created in the
country, no matter what the ruling on Ergenekon will be, at least
some segments of society will question it.

ARMENIA INVOLVED IN FAO INITIATIVE ON SOARING FOOD PRICES

NOYAN TAPAN

JU LY 17

FAO has just approved a series of projects in 48 countries for a
total value of 21 million USD to help small farmers and vulnerable
households mitigate the negative effects of rising food and input
prices. The project will provide farmers with agricultural inputs
as of this month for an expected duration of one year. Funded by the
Technical Cooperation Programme, i.e. FAO’s own resources, they are
part of FAO’s Initiative on soaring food prices (ISFP).

As Noyan Tapan was informed by FAO, Armenia is among these countries
and will benefit from this FAO initiative within the framework of a
newly approved TCP/ARM/3202 (E) -Input supply to vulnerable populations
under the Initiative on Soaring Food Prices (ISFP) project. The overall
objective of the project is to maintain livelihoods and food security
of the most vulnerable households of the food insecure districts
of Armenia, affected by the difficult 2007/8 winter as well as the
recent soaring food prices crisis, to provide technical assistance
on best farming practices and to ensure long lasting and sustainable
results for future planting seasons.

This project will target the most affected farmers with an emergency
distribution of cereal seeds and adequate fertilizers. This will
enable farmers to resume agriculture activities and offer them an
alternative source of income, thus restoring the household economy
and ensuring food security. In addition, the target beneficiaries
will be provided with adequate training in improved potato, wheat
and vegetable production. Some 2.000 vulnerable rural households in
the most affected areas of Armenia will benefit from this project.

The duration of the project is 12 months and the total project budget
is 500 thousand USD. The project already became operational and the
FAO Representation implementing partner of it is the Ministry of
Agriculture of the Republic of Armenia.

FORCES, WILLING TO INCITE ETHNIC CONFLICT IN AZERBAIJAN, ATTEMPT TO USE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE AVARIAN PEOPLE

Today.Az
July 16 2008
Azerbaijan

An appeal of a group of Azerbaijani residents from Zaqatala, Qakh
and Balaken to the then-working president of Russia Vladimir Putin,
President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliyev and Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan
Vasily Istratov was published some time ago at the internet website

The appeal says that being representatives of the Avarian nationality,
they are discontent with the living conditions of national minorities
in Azerbaijan and are pursued by Azerbaijani officials.

The appeal also states political, cultural and socioeconomic
discrimination against Avarians and notes that they feel isolated
from their compatriots.

On the whole, the appeal contained a number of separatist
announcements. The appeal was signed by over 50 residents of the
aforementioned regions. Moreover, the website posted the list of
those who signed.

One of the regional correspondents of Day.Az tried to investigate the
problems of the representatives of the Avarian people, whose names were
listed on the website. The results of the journalist investigation was
quite unexpected. Persons, whose names were listed on the website,
noted that they had not signed any appeals of the kind and even had
not heard about it.

At the same time, several curious facts, which completely disprove
the facts about the alleged discrimination, persecution by officials
of Azerbaijan and so on, have also been revealed.

It turned out that 7 people of the said lists have previously occupied
positions of the municipality chairmen, 9 are current chairmen of local
self-government bodies, one person is a businessman, one is a chairman
of the trade union in the agrarian sector, one-the chairman of the
regions post office, one the chairman of the regional organization
of the Azerbaijan’s Popular Front Party, one the secretary of the
regional organization of the Musavat party and one is a chief of the
rural library.

They noted that appearance of such information on the separatist
website, is not by accident and can be posted by forces, which attempt
to incite ethnic conflict in Azerbaijan, using the issue of national
minorities.

They said these forces sometimes try to raise the so-called Lezgium
and Talish issue and now they intent to involve Avarian people in
it. They said Armenians and their supporters are the main characters
who wish division of Azerbaijan into smaller parts and Armenian trace
should by primarily searched in such cases.

RECOGNISE INDONESIA’S HEART OF DARKNESS
Mark Aarons

The Australian
July 15, 2008 Tuesday
1 – All-round Country Edition

Just as much of the Left needs to revisit its support for murderous
communist regimes, we should also reconsider political support of
Suharto and the military, contends Mark Aarons

WHEN Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jose Ramos Horta receive the Truth
and Friendship Commission’s (CTF) report today, the Indonesian
President will be hoping that it is the final chapter in this
long-running and tragic saga.

Established in 2005 as a joint Indonesian-East Timorese inquiry,
the commission has investigated the campaign of violence that marred
Timor’s 1999 independence vote. Leaked copies of its report confirm
the findings of Timor’s Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(CAVR) that the campaign of terror, murder and forced deportations was
directed, funded and carried out under the command of the Indonesian
government and military, a fact widely known at the time.

The report’s release coincides with the start of the lengthy
campaign that will culminate in next April’s Indonesian election. The
President’s party is behind in the polls and there is speculation that
former Indonesian armed forces commander Wiranto could emerge as a
serious contender for president. This would be ironic, as the 1999
campaign of destruction was carried out on Wiranto’s orders, which
he denied under Koranic oath when he voluntarily appeared before the
CTF in May 2007.

Wiranto’s denial is symptomatic of the attitude adopted by the Javanese
military elite, which still dominates Indonesian life. Behind the 1999
events stands a series of crimes carried out by the armed forces that
have run the country since 1965. The CAVR report detailed the horrors
inflicted on Timor between 1975 and 1999, in which almost 200,000
people were killed or starved to death and the survivors rounded up
and forcibly resettled in what were, in effect, concentration camps,
where many were tortured.

In 1969, the army rigged the Act of Free Choice to ensure West Papua
was incorporated into Indonesia.

In the preceding seven years the indigenous population was subjected
to a regime of terror and murder to prepare for the vote, which was
recognised by the international community despite widespread knowledge
of the methods that had been used to secure the rorted result. The
massacre of 500,000 to one million alleged communists in 1965-66 set
the tone for military rule, followed by the establishment of a brutal
police state replete with gulags full of political prisoners.

Reminiscent of Turkey’s continuing denial of responsibility for the
Armenian genocide during and after World War I, Indonesia refuses to
confront this decades-long history of criminal behaviour by its army
leaders. Indeed, the families of those slaughtered in the mid-1960s
still cannot disinter their bodies for dignified reburial. Such denial
infects Indonesian society and, while it persists, gravely restricts
the country’s ability to develop its institutions in a democratic
and tolerant way.

It also infects Australian attitudes to Indonesia and skews our
policies towards our most important neighbour. Successive Australian
governments embraced the New Order ushered in by general (later
president) Suharto’s massacres as a welcome development. There are
also indications of Australian assistance in these bloody events.

This condoning of mass murder was recently brought into sharp relief
by former prime minister Paul Keating, who launched a blistering
attack on his robust critic, Paddy McGuinness, at the time of his
death, but travelled to Jakarta to praise the mass murderer Suharto
at his funeral.

Keating’s warmth for Suharto echoes another prime minister, Harold
Holt, who in 1966 cheerfully welcomed the ostensible reorientation
of Indonesian politics that had been brought about by "knocking off"
up to one million people.

In between, there has been an unedifying array of prime ministers who
have explicitly or inferentially condoned the criminal policies of
the Indonesian military. John Gorton and William McMahon continued
Holt’s approach, while Gough Whitlam initiated "batik diplomacy",
welcoming Suharto to Australia and encouraging Timor’s incorporation
into Indonesia.

Malcolm Fraser remained silent about the deaths of 180,000 Timorese
between 1975 and 1982, although Australian intelligence knew the
terrible details. Bob Hawke changed ALP policy to reaffirm Australia’s
formal recognition of Indonesian sovereignty over Timor, then approved
the notorious Timor Gap Treaty. Keating made a secret deal with Suharto
that included upgrading military ties. In 1998, John Howard initiated
the process leading to East Timor’s independence vote, but failed to
act against Indonesian-controlled violence until forced to do so by
the worst atrocities that followed the August 1999 vote.

During the past 40 years, such policies have been supported by
influential Australians. James McAuley and Heinz Arndt greeted the
Suharto regime with enthusiasm in journals such as Quadrant and
Australian Outlook; reporting for the Australian Financial Review,
McGuinness took an Indonesian helicopter trip around Timor at the
height of the military-induced famine and declared it did not exist;
Paul Kelly has written in support of international recognition of
Jakarta’s control of West Papua in this newspaper; in his weekly
newspaper column, Gerard Henderson has minimised the role of the
Indonesian military in organising, financing and directing the 1999
crimes in Timor, despite evidence to the contrary.

Just as Indonesia cannot move forward without coming to terms with
the dark side of its recent history, so too Australia cannot build
a secure and lasting relationship with its most important neighbour
without being honest about our quiescence towards — and sometimes
active support for — the crimes of the Indonesian military.

Just as sections of the Left need to re-evaluate their support for
murderous communist regimes, it is time to reconsider the equally
immoral support given to Suharto and his cohort. The CTF report is
a good starting point. Continuing criminal behaviour in West Papua
makes this even more relevant.

There were alternatives to Australia’s obsequious policies in the
past. By taking a stronger stand on human rights abuses in West Papua
and revisiting the rorted 1969 plebiscite, we would avoid once again
dragging our national honour through the mud.

TURKISH TENSIONS DEEPEN AS 86 ACCUSED IN COUP PLOT
Mark Mackinnon

Globe and Mail
July 15 2008
Canada

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s vast secular-religious divide – and the
high-stakes struggle between the two sides – was on spectacular
display yesterday as prosecutors accused dozens of senior military,
business and media figures of planning a coup against the country’s
mildly Islamist government.

Depending on which side of the divide you stand, the indictment is
either an instance of the judicial system acting to preserve democracy
against an interventionist military, or a spectacular example of the
governing AK Party persecuting its opponents.

Turkey’s religious and secular elites have been at odds for decades,
but now the struggle for power seems set to be decided in the country’s
courtrooms. The coup plot allegations come as the AK Party is facing a
constitutional court challenge, brought forward by its secular foes,
that could see Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President
Abdullah Gul forced to resign and their party banned from politics.

The stakes clearly couldn’t be any higher. The 2,455-page indictment
filed yesterday by Istanbul’s public prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin,
accuses 86 individuals of being members of a secret ultranationalist
organization called Ergenekon that sought to defend Turkey’s secular
traditions by bringing down Mr. Erdogan’s government.

The alleged conspirators were accused of planning to spread violence
and chaos through the country, eventually forcing the army to intervene
and seize power in the name of maintaining order. The case first
came to light last year, when a cache of grenades and explosives was
discovered during a police raid on a house in Istanbul.

Prosecutors have linked Ergenekon to a number of violent incidents
around the country in the past two years, including the assassination
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.

The shadowy organization is allegedly headed by Sener Eruygur, the
retired head of the Gendarmerie, a branch of the Turkish armed forces
responsible for maintaining public order, and Hursit Tolon, another
retired general. Though the details of the indictment will not be
made public until a court agrees to hear the case, many of the names
and specific allegations have already been leaked in the Turkish press.

Most of the other alleged conspirators are reported also to be retired
military officials, while several prominent journalists and academics,
as well as leaders of the left-wing Workers’ Party, are also believed
to have been named in the indictment. Forty-eight of the suspects
are already in police custody, some of them having been arrested as
far back as a year ago.

Mr. Engin told a news conference here that the charges filed against
the 86 included counts of membership in a terrorist organization and
attempting to overthrow the government by force. A court must decide
within two weeks whether to hear the case.

The group is actually alleged to have plotted to depose the government
on four separate occasions after the AK Party’s sweeping victory in
2002 elections. The most recent plot was to have unfolded earlier this
month with a wave of bombings and assassinations – Nobel Prize-winning
author Orhan Pamuk is believed to have been one target – creating
widespread unrest that would force the army to step in.

Turkey’s military, which sees itself as the defender of the secular
constitution in this overwhelmingly Muslim state, has staged four
coups in the past 50 years. "The military interferes in political life
in Turkey. They try to influence elections, they tried to pressure
the government into not electing the current president," political
analyst Andrew Finkel said. "There’s obviously an issue where people
who had power think they can hang onto power."

Mr. Finkel said Ergenekon is perceived to be just one incarnation of
what many Turks refer to as "Deep State" – members of the military
and political elite who have long controlled the country from behind
the scenes. The name Ergenekon refers to a legendary mountain in Asia
where, according to myth, Turks gathered to escape the Mongol hordes.

The government’s opponents, however, say that the case is little
more than the official persecution of the AK Party’s enemies. In his
retirement, Gen. Eruygur headed the Kemalist Thought Association –
named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of Turkey’s secular
republic – a group that was involved in organizing mass rallies
against the AK Party ahead of elections last year. The effort failed,
and the AK Party was resoundingly re-elected.

Indeed, many see the Ergenekon investigation as the government’s
attempt to strike back ahead of the looming Constitutional Court
ruling on the legality of the AK Party. Some of the Ergenekon
arrests were carried out hours before an Ankara court was to hear
the 162-page indictment alleging that the AK Party intends to create
an Islamic state in Turkey, a charge the AK Party denies. A ruling
on the Constitutional Court case is expected some time in the next
three weeks.

"I want to believe that there was no political motivation, or
there was no link between this case and the closure case at the
Constitutional Court against the ruling AKP … [but] it is obvious
that prosecutors will have a difficult time to prove their thesis
that there was a terrorist establishment aimed at toppling the elected
government. … Proving these charges will be an uphill task for the
prosecutor," said Yusuf Kanli, a columnist with the Turkish Daily News,
an English-language newspaper seen as pro-secular.

The AK Party is an offshoot of the Welfare Party, an Islamist movement
that was declared unconstitutional and banned in 1997. Mr. Erdogan,
who at the time was mayor of Istanbul and a Welfare Party member,
was sentenced to 10 months in prison for reciting a religious poem
in public that was deemed inflammatory.

*****

A tumultuous past

Governments in Turkey have often faced coups or the threat of one
when secularists feel in jeopardy.

1920 A revolt led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a distinguished Ottoman
general, led to the collapse of the sultanate centred in Istanbul and
the establishment of the new state of Turkey. In 1928, Turkey became
a secular republic.

1960 The government was overthrown by a military coup led by General
Cemal Gursel, who accused it of betraying Ataturk’s principle of
secularism. Work on a new constitution began immediately and it was
approved by a referendum in July of 1961. An election was held in
October of that year and the army withdrew from active political
involvement.

1980 After a long period of political instability and violence, mainly
between left-wing and right-wing groups, the army seized power in
a bloodless coup and abolished the assembly, political parties and
trade unions, jailed thousands of dissidents and put Turkey under
martial law. In November of 1982, a national referendum approved a
new constitution and in December a new election was held.