The latest series of arrests on Sunday (11 January) brought the total number of people suspected of being implicated in a secularist plot to bring down the moderately Islamist AKP government to over 100.
Police said it had uncovered an arms cache in a forest near Ankara, thanks to a sketch found in the home of a former special forces police chief.
According to EurActiv Turkey, last week's arrests revealed that a number of "surprise names" are apparently involved with Ergenekon in what is widely considered to be "the case of the century" in the country.
Among those incarcerated is Professor Yalçin Küçük, a former president of the Higher Education Council (YÖK), Professor Kemal Gürüz, a former legal adviser to the General Staff, honorary chief justice of the Court of Appeals Sabih Kanadoglu, and several other high military officials.
The main opposition leader, Deniz Baykal of the Republican People's Party (CHP), reacted fiercely to the arrests. "This is an operation of revenge and a political payoff," he said.
"In the countries going through a change of regime, such scenes occur. We see sudden replacement of the system of social values, fundamental values and principles of society, as well as eminent figures, before and after the Ayatollah Khomeini period, and before and after the Hitler period. Now, we are faced with such scenes again," Baykal declared.
In the meantime, Greece accused Turkey of "provocations" by its military jets in the Aegean Sea. Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis will today (12 January) chair an extraordinary meeting over the situation.
The Greek press wrote that the latest in a string of tensions between the two NATO member countries was probably related to the difficult internal political situation in Turkey.
