Your trusted source

Turkey's former armed forces chief was expected to defend himself against terrorism charges on Tuesday at a trial unthinkable before Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan took on the power of a military that had dominated Turkey for decades, Reuters reported.

General Ilker Basbug, chief of staff in 2008-2010, exchanged salutes with former colleagues during a break in Monday's first day of a trial encroaching on sensitive territory in a country that saw three coups in the second half of the 20th century.

Other supporters demonstrated outside the court with Turkish flags and placards showing Basbug.

The court is sitting in the Silivri high-security prison complex where he and other accused conspirators are held.

Basbug is accused of being a leader of a shadowy network dubbed Ergenekon, behind a string of alleged plots against the government of Erdogan. Ergenekon is accused of planning campaigns of disinformation, bombings and assassinations to stir panic and precipitate an army coup.

Comments by Basbug's lawyer reflected a sense among some conservatives that the case itself presented a challenge to the constitutional order.

"The allegation...is not only against Ilker Basbug, but also against the Turkish armed forces and even, in political terms, the state," lawyer Ilkay Sezer said on the eve of the trial.