Two things are noteworthy about the trials. The first is that they are happening at all. Turkey's armed forces have traditionally been seen, and have seen themselves, as the guardians of Kemalism, the secular, modernist philosophy of modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. They have toppled duly elected governments four times, most recently in 1997. Up to now, civilian prosecutors have never dared investigate retired and serving generals and call them to account. More typical of the Turkish courts' relationship with the military was the Semdinli affair of 2005, when a grenade thrown into a bookshop killed a man. The perpetrators were members of Turkey's militarized police, and were convicted of murder and sentenced to almost 40 years. The Court of Appeals however, decided they should have been tried in military court, and they remain free and on duty.
