More military men detained as 33 already jailed
News,Etc. Prosecutors in Istanbul continued to order the detention of military men throughout the week after the first wave which sent 33 of the 49 officers detained to prison on charges of participating at plans to stage a coup against the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan while President Abdullah Gul asked him and Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug to a meeting at the Cankaya Presidential Residence to discuss “the serious situation” that has been created by the whole affair. The prosecutors handling the Ergenekon case issued another list of 18 officers, almost all of them in active service to be detained by police and brought to Istanbul for questioning. However, the former commanders of the air force and navy and the former deputy chief of staff who were detained during the first wave were freed after their questioning by the prosecutors. The decision to free them came after the meeting at the Cankaya residence after which a one-sentence announcement urged “all parties concerned to act with responsibility in order not to impair the institutions of the state.” Erdogan was seen walking into the President’s office carrying a briefcase followed by Gen. Basbug with a similar one in his hand leading to speculation that the “warring parties” were going to settle their accounts through solid evidence. But no word was leaked out of the meeting regarding the exchanges that took place between the three leaders who are probably the only people capable of defusing the tensions or exacerbating the crisis. Although the former commanders of the air force and the navy were released after their questioning, retired four-star general Cetin Dogan, the former commander of the 1st Army, under whose command the military exercises allegedly aiming at a coup had been staged was formally arrested and sent to prison. […]