ANKARA, Jan 26: Turkish authorities have charged five ultra-nationalists, including a retired army major, with involvement in plans for a violent uprising against the government, Turkish media said on Saturday.

A court said retired army major Zekeriya Ozturk will face charges of inciting people to armed revolt and four other men will face charges of belonging to an illegal group, private broadcaster CNN Turk said.

The court decision follows the arrests of dozens of people this week after a police investigation into a far-right group known as Ergenekon. Turkish media say the group was plotting a series of bomb attacks and assassinations.

Officials have declined to comment on the case, which began with the seizure of explosives and weapons at a house in Umraniye, Istanbul, last summer.

The court was still deliberating on possible charges against four other men, including a second retired army officer and a lawyer who is well known in Turkey for prosecuting writers and journalists.

Turkish newspapers said this week the group was plotting to kill Nobel Literature Laureate Orhan Pamuk and several Kurdish politicians.

The newspapers also said the group was preparing a series of bomb attacks aimed at fomenting chaos ahead of a coup in 2009 against Turkey’s centre-right government, whose European Union-linked reforms are opposed by the ultra-nationalists.

Some commentators have seen in the case the workings of a “deep state”, a phrase used to denote ultra-nationalists in the security forces and state bureaucracy who are ready to subvert the law for their own political ends.

Police have been observing Ergenekon, which is named after a valley in Turkish nationalist mythology, for several years and have compiled a 7,000-page dossier on the group and its activities, newspapers say.—Reuters