Turkey's Former Army Chief Ilker Basbug Arrested for Attempting to Overthrow Islamist Government

Turkey's former Army chief Ilker Basbug was arrested on 6 January 2012 over an alleged attempt on part of the chief to topple the Islamist-rooted government in the country. Ilker Basbug, the 26th chief of staff of the Turkish republic was placed in preventive detention for setting up and leading a terrorist group and of attempting to overthrow the government. General Basbug, who served as Army chief from 2008 to 2010, was sent to a prison at Istanbul's Silivri prison.

Basbug is the first such high-ranking military commander to be arrested as a suspect since a former chief of staff in the 1960s.
General Basbug, who retired in 2010, is the senior most officer to be held in a massive investigation into the so-called Ergenekon network that is accused of plotting to topple Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Tensions between Turkey's fiercely secularist military and Erdogan's government have been building for years. Currently one-tenth of the Generals are in custody over the alleged coup plots. The military, which considers itself as the guardian of secularism in modern-day Turkey and currently boasts a force of 515000 troops, carried out three coups in the past- 1960, 1971 and 1980. The military had ousted a coalition government led by an Islamist Prime Minister in 1997.