The charge slapped on the General, who retired in 2010 as the 26th army chief, and accepted by the courts, is that he was trying to overthrow the government by ‘forming, directing and funding Ergenekon network through websites. The Ergenekon case, as the probe has come to be known, has seen over 400 arrests, and prompted the three service chiefs to quit in protest five months ago when several officers, including generals, were arrested along with academics, lawyers and journalists.

There are not many takers for the official claim that the arrested were active in the ultra nationalist shadowy network. Opinion is however divided on the impact of Basbug’s arrest on civilian- army relations.

Prime Minister Edrogan’s party, Justice and Development Party, (AKP), is Islamist at the core; but the military establishment considers itself as the custodian of the secular legacy of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal. Edrogan has been voted to power for a third term in a row; the mandate has much to do with the economic turn around Turkey witnessed under his leadership. The country has also become a regional power house.

The Prime Minister has been using this clout to make the army to fall in-line, and the turn of events show he has so far managed to have his way and say, notwithstanding the fact the country was witness to as many as four coups over the years.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay has played down the former general’s arrest and related concerns. He said ‘there is a great normalisation process in Turkey, the point of view is changing, where whoever does something wrong, it is deemed wrong’.

In a manner of speaking, the arrest of General Ilker Basbug shows the final shifting of power balance from the military to the civilian establishment. This is a lesson worth studying, if not emulating, for Pakistan, where the military refuses to vacate the centre stage and is not allowing democracy to take roots in the country.

Prime Minister Edrogan has ensured the accountability of Turkey’s army to the government and through the government to Parliament. And accountability of elected law makers and all other institutions of governance to parliament is the sine qua non of democracy. In contrast, the Generals in Pakistan are ensuring the accountability of the elected representatives to the GHQ Shura in Rawalpindi.