**Eleven more Turkish military officers have been charged over an alleged plot to sow chaos and provoke a coup.**A total of 31 officers have now been charged and jailed.
Several suspects were taken to court for questioning on Friday including Gen Cetin Dogan, the former head of Turkey’s First Army region.
The case has increased tensions between the military and the government, which is led by the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The military has denied any coup plot.
On Thursday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul sought to reassure the country, saying tensions over an alleged military coup plot would be resolved within the “constitution”.
He made the statement after meeting the head of the armed forces, Gen Ilker Basbug, along with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The 11 suspects most recently charged are among more than 49 people detained over the alleged coup plot on Monday, in an operation of unprecedented scale.
Those charged to date include seven navy admirals and four army generals.
The former heads of the air force and navy and a general were freed on Thursday, having been questioned by prosecutors.
HOW ‘COUP PLOTS’ EMERGED
- June 2007: Cache of explosives discovered; ex-soldiers detained
- July 2008: 20 arrested, including two ex-generals and a senior journalist, for “planning political disturbances and trying to organise a coup”
- July 2008: Governing AK Party narrowly escapes court ban
- October 2008: 86 go on trial charged with “Ergenekon” coup plot
- July 2009: 56 in dock as second trial opens
- Jan 2010: Taraf newspaper reports 2003 “sledgehammer” plot to provoke coup
- Feb 2010: More than 40 officers arrested over “sledgehammer”; 20 charged
Plot thickens in Turkey ‘coup plan’
Turkey’s religious-secular divide
Turkish military faces crossroads
The three - retired air force head Ibrahim Firtina, former navy chief Ozden Ornek and former deputy army chief Ergin Saygun - have not been charged but remain under investigation, prosecutors said.
A number of others have also been released.
Turkey’s military has overthrown or forced the resignation of four governments since 1960 - most recently in 1997 - though Gen Basbug has insisted that coups are a thing of the past.
Reports of the alleged “sledgehammer” plot first surfaced in the liberal Taraf newspaper, which said it had discovered documents detailing plans to bomb two Istanbul mosques and provoke Greece into shooting down a Turkish plane over the Aegean Sea.
The army has said the scenarios were discussed but only as part of a planning exercise at a military seminar.
The alleged plot is similar, and possibly linked, to the reported Ergenekon conspiracy, in which military figures and staunch secularists allegedly planned to foment unrest, leading to a coup.
Scores of people, including military officers, journalists and academics, are on trial in connection with that case.
Many Turks regard the cases as the latest stage in an ongoing power struggle between Turkey’s secular nationalist establishment and the governing AKP.
Critics believe the Ergenekon and sledgehammer investigations are simply attempts to silence the government’s political and military opponents.
The AK Party has its roots in political Islam, and is accused by some nationalists of having secret plans to turn staunchly secular Turkey into an Islamic state.
The government rejects those claims, saying its intention is to modernise Turkey and move it closer to EU membership.
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