Trials
This chapter is on the extensive legal probes and subsequent trials from 2007 in response to alleged attempts towards a military takeover in Turkey, coupled with claims of a ‘deep state’ in the midst of diverse anti-government conspiracies. Uniquely instrumental in silencing the opposition, formal or popular, in resistance to the recasting of power in process, the trials would come to be described by none other than the government itself from the end of 2013 as nothing but mere show trials, with mostly trumped up charges. Now in an escalating war of attrition with the Gulenist cult—the staunchest allies until shortly before—the government would blame the blatant miscarriages of justice against the members of the military and opposition figures solely on the Gulenist police and judiciary. The chapter chronicles the cases, looking into the way they were handled, with some twists to follow, ultimately almost fully to be aborted.