Turkey's generals file formal complaint over two coup trials Turkey's military chiefs have filed a formal complaint over two high profile coup trials known as Sledgehammer and Ergenekon that they say were part of a plot against the armed forces. The move by the general staff, which includes a request for a retrial in both cases, is the latest sign of a battle within the Turkish state that has shaken markets. The complaint was filed on December 27 but emerged on Thursday. The Turkish lira fell to an all-time low of TL2.184 to the dollar on Thursday before recovering partially to TL2.171 amid concerns about the rule of law in the country. The Sledgehammer and Ergenekon cases, which lasted for years before sentencing in 2012 and 2013, were hailed by supporters as a sign of a break with the country's history of coups and an untouchable military. They led to the conviction of more than 300 officers, including Ilker Basbug, a former chief of staff. But critics dismissed them as witch hunts that grouped the innocent with the guilty and relied on concocted evidence. The cases were championed - critics say orchestrated - by supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher with followers in the police, prosecution service and judiciary who has broken with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister. The latest developments highlight increased pressure on the Gulenists. Tension between the government and the movement reached a new height last month as prosecutors launched a series of anti-corruption raids on government connected figures - an investigation Mr Erdogan has depicted, in an implicit reference to Mr Gulen's supporters, as a plot against Turkey mounted by a "parallel state." In the wake of those raids, Yalcin Akdogan, one of Mr Erdogan's top advisers, said there had been a plot against the army as well as the government. While the military has long been a foe of both Mr Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government and Mr Gulen's movement, government-military tensions have receded amid Ankara's drive to root Gulenists out of the state apparatus. But leading business figures in Turkey have expressed concern about the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law after the government effectively stalled last month's anti-corruption probe by moving hundreds of police officers from their positions. "We have known all along that there were indictments and judgments in Turkey that defied elementary logic; what's new is that now we discover that the [ruling] AKP is also not immune," said Hakan Altinay at the Brookings Institution. In a further indication of possible fissures between the country's institutions, police were on Thursday prevented by order of the governor of the southern province of Hatay from searching a vehicle alleged to be carrying weapons to Syrian rebels. The Turkish press published a document purporting to show that the truck and its personnel belonged to Turkey's intelligence agency, while the government said the truck was merely carrying aid to ethnic Turks in Syria. In a separate move, the Ankara prosecutor has opened an investigation into claims by a ruling party official that a court of appeals judge had consulted Mr Gulen about a judgment before delivering it. Mr Gulen's lawyer has said no such contact took has taken place, while the court of appeals has described the claim as unacceptable.