A Turkish court jailed a senior military officer on suspicion of involvement in an alleged army plan to discredit the ruling AK Party, Reuters qouted state-run Anatolian news agency as reporting on Thursday. The investigation has stoked tensions between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan"s government and the secularist military in the predominantly Muslim, European Union candidate country. An Istanbul court ordered the arrest and detention of Colonel Dursun Cicek on Wednesday evening on suspicion of "membership of a terrorist group". According to media reports, Cicek is regarded as the author of the suspected plan targeting the government. He has denied the charge. Cicek had been detained previously over suspected links to a separate plot to overthrow the government by a shadowy, nationalist group known as "Ergenekon". A trial into that alleged coup plot is ongoing. Army suspicions that Erdogan"s AK Party has a hidden Islamist agenda and aims to undermine the country"s staunch secular order have repeatedly triggered political strains in recent years, unsettling financial markets. The AK Party denies having such an agenda. -- SPA
