From the Economist: It has been a rotten year for Turkey’s generals. A series of leaked documents, tapped phone calls and sometimes plain accidents have exposed enough instances of shenanigans and mischief to shake the faith of even the most hard-core secularist. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has spoken of “historic changes”. The days when civilians took their orders from generals in Turkey may be gone for good.

The most recent scandal concerns two officers from Turkey’s special forces who were arrested just before Christmas on suspicion of trying to assassinate Bulent Arinc, the (overtly pious) former speaker of parliament who is now a deputy prime minister. One of them apparently tried to eat the piece of paper on which Mr Arinc’s address was written when they were arrested near his Ankara home. The army’s explanation that the officers were spying on a colleague after an anonymous tip-off that he was passing secrets on to Mr Arinc failed to impress prosecutors: several other officers were briefly detained in connection with the alleged murder attempt…

The latest operation marks perhaps the first time that civilian officials have carried out such an action against the army. Their ability to do so was enshrined in a landmark law, passed by the AK government in June 2009, that allows men in uniform to be tried in civilian courts. After some wobbling, Mr Erdogan now seems ready to take the army on. Many officers, including several retired generals, are languishing in jail in connection with the so-called Ergenekon trial of a group of would-be coup plotters. With each new revelation that taints the armed forces, ever more Turks fret that the army may be undermining the state. (photo: Zalim)