Turkish police detained about 40 people including three retired generals yesterday, media said, widening an investigation into an alleged plot to topple EU aspirant Turkey's Islamist-rooted AK Party government.
In what is known as the Ergenekon affair, 86 people, including retired army officers, politicians and lawyers, are currently on trial for allegedly being part of a right-wing group in a case that has shattered taboos by opening the powerful military to judicial investigation.
Critics of the ruling AK Party say prime minister Tayyip Erdogan's government is using the case as revenge for court moves by the secular establishment last year to outlaw the party for anti-secular activities. The AK Party denies any link.
The Anatolian state news agency said the police operation was launched in six provinces, including Ankara and Istanbul, after an Istanbul court ordered the detentions as well as searches of the suspects' homes and workplaces.
The retired generals are Kemal Yavuz, Erdal Senel and Tuncer Kilinc, a former chairman of the National Security Council.
Also detained was Kemal Guruz, a former chairman of the staunchly secular High Board of Education, which oversees universities. A former police chief was also held.
Fuelling charges that the AK Party is launching a witch-hunt against opponents, police in the capital Ankara also searched the home of a former prosecutor known for his anti-government views.
Sabih Kanadoglu, who has accused the government of pushing the country towards a "religious dictatorship", was behind a court decision that prevented parliament from electing Abdullah Gul as president in 2007. He was later elected in a referendum.
Financial markets, awaiting developments on an expected IMF agreement to help Turkey weather the global financial crisis, largely ignored news of the arrests.
The defendants in the Ergenekon case are accused of planning assassinations and bombings to sow chaos and force the military to step in.
The military, which has unseated four governments in the last 50 years and views itself as the guarantor of Turkey's secular order, denies any link to the group known as Ergenekon.