ANKARA: Eight Turkish soldiers were detained on Saturday in an investigation into allegations of an assassination plot against Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc.
The army general staff said in a statement that the soldiers were taken to Ankara central command headquarters in the morning after state prosecutors searched a military base in the capital.
The investigation was launched after Arinc said last week a security guard at his home in Ankara saw a car carrying two officers near the house several times.
The reports fueled rumors of mounting tension between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party and the armed forces, seen as guarantor of the secular constitution.
Chief of General Staff Ilker Basbug and land forces commander Isik Kosaner met Erdogan on Saturday after the soldiers’ detention. The prime minister’s office said Erdogan was briefed on some domestic and international security issues, without providing details.
“The prime minister informed himself over the developments in internal and external security,” the government said in a statement.
The military has denied being part of any plot and said the two soldiers who were detained were investigating a mole in the army who was passing on classified information to civilians.
The two men were released early Sunday after police searched their homes, seizing computers and electronic data storage devices.
The soldiers were detained only days after Basbug issued a fresh warning over a “psychological campaign” to smear the army.
Dozens of suspects, among them retired generals, are on trial accused of being members of an alleged secularist network which plotted assassinations and political chaos to provoke a military coup against the ruling party.
The army has unseated four governments since 1960.
