Turkish coup trial brings reduced role for the army

After five years, there is a verdict in the trial that has gripped Turkey. The country's army is not pleased.

The generals are going to jail. After five years, a long-running trial in Turkey into allegations of a coup against the elected government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has issued its verdicts - and they are harsh. Dozens of high-ranking members of the army and politicians are going to jail, some for decades. The former chief of staff of the army was sentenced to life in jail.

The case started quietly in 2007, when police found 27 grenades in a house in Istanbul. But as the investigation grew, it snowballed, dragging in army officers, politicians and journalists. For some, the case was about the army's continuing involvement in Turkey's now maturing democracy.

Since the founding of the Turkish republic, the army has intervened in politics three times to remove governments. They intervened in 1997, in what has been called a "soft coup" because the government were merely pressured to leave.

That intervention led to the Islamist movement that runs Turkey today - after the 1997 coup, the then-mayor of Istanbul was sentenced to jail time. After he came out, the mayor founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the mayor, now the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, swept to power.

So the subordination of the army to politicians is a victory of sorts, although many point out it smacks of revenge. The trial was initially welcomed by the public when it started in 2008, but over the years Mr Erdogan and his party have become less popular and what was once seen as the assertion of democracy over the generals now looks, to some, like an attempt to shut down any dissent.

Comparisons to Egypt will be made, although the two cases are quite different. Turkey has had a secular state since its founding, while Egypt's army was trying to bring back some balance to the democratic process.

For Turkey, it was past time for the generals to step back from politics. The shepherding of democracy can only be a temporary measure. Eventually, whoever is doing the shepherding needs to let the process run and deal with whoever is thrown up by open elections.

While there are important questions about the trial and important questions about AKP's commitment to democracy, an imperfect process remains better than the alternatives.

That's may not be an easy message for some in Turkey to hear today.