ISTANBUL: A Turkish military officer suspected of involvement in an alleged plot to topple the government has committed suicide, the state-run Anatolian news agency said on Sunday.
Lt. Col. Deniz Tatar was found dead at his home in Istanbul on Saturday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Anatolian reported.
Tatar was detained on Dec. 7 and released three days later.
A court later agreed to a prosecutor’s request that he be arrested again, and Tatar committed suicide after notification of the decision, the agency said. Some 200 people, including military officers, politicians, journalists and academics, are on trial in connection with the so-called Ergenekon plot.
Prosecutors say they are members of an ultra-nationalist network that sought to topple Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government. The case has rattled financial markets worried about political stability in the European Union candidate country.
It also has escalated tensions between the government and the secularist army, which is concerned Erdogan is pushing an Islamist agenda, which he denies. The military has toppled three governments in outright coups since 1960 and forced a fourth, Turkey’s first Islamist-led Cabinet, from power in 1997.
