Turkey's trial of the century

The court transcript reads like a classic mafia film script, featuring a line-up movie producers would die for, with codenames like Blondie, Moonshine, Sea Glitter, and Velvet Glove. Behind them, wrote Nicholas Birch for Prospect back in June, "lies a twisted plot, traced in part to 86 suspects charged with belonging to a gang that, prosecutors say, ordered the shooting of a secular High Court judge in 2006."

Yet Turkey's "trial of the century," which has now begun in earnest and is expected to drag on for at least two years, could actually mark the birth of genuine democracy for the country, which has undergone four military coups since 1960. Why? Read Nicholas Birch's full account of the scandal here.