Chaos erupts at coup trial in Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Chaos erupted Monday as a group of 86 people, including former army officers, a best-selling author and an ultra-nationalist lawyer, crowded into a prison courtroom for trial on charges of conspiring to overthrow Turkey's Islamic-oriented government.

A panel of judges adjourned the proceeding after defendants and lawyers jamming the courtroom complained they could not hear. The proceedings later resumed with only the 46 jailed suspects and their lawyers. The other 40 suspects in the case are free pending trial.

The defendants are charged with seeking to destabilize Turkey with attacks ahead of a planned coup in 2009. But at the heart of the trial is a widening division between the country's growing Islamic class with political and economic clout and the backlash from secular foes, some of whom have turned to violence.

The case has raised concerns about political instability in Turkey, a country that has endured the ouster of four governments by the military since 1960.

But the investigation so far has not uncovered alleged involvement by active-duty military officers or other state officials, despite what many Turks believe is a long history of crime by elements of the Turkish state.

The defendants are accused of being part of a nationalist network called Ergenekon — which takes its name from a legendary valley in Central Asia believed to be the ancestral homeland of Turks — and of plotting an armed uprising.

A new hearing was set for Thursday so the court can consider a demand by defendants that the judges be replaced because of alleged bias, Anatolia news agency reported.

The conflict between the government and its secular opponents eased in July when the Constitutional Court ruled against disbanding the ruling Justice and Development Party, which was accused of steering the country toward Islamic rule, but imposed a fine as a warning.

The coup plot trial revisits the battle over Turkey's political and social future, with government opponents saying the case is an attempt to cow them with the courts. The government, meanwhile, says it is an opportunity to expose the influence of the "deep state," a shadowy network of alleged extremists with links to state institutions, including the military.

The trial is being held at a prison complex in Istanbul's Silivri district on the coast of the Sea of Marmara. The courtroom can accommodate about 280 people, but an accreditation system appeared to have failed and almost double that number tried to enter Monday.