The trials of the alleged coup plotters in Turkey could well prove a defining moment in the Turkey's modern history, the Independent says in an editorial article.

The 142 defendants in the two cases - the second of which started yesterday - include retired generals, journalists and academics. All are said to be members of the shadowy Ergenekonn etwork of ultra-nationalists widely believed to have been behind a series of assassinations and disappearances in the last decade and now accused of planning to overthrow the elected government of the Islamist AK Party.

To many, a successful prosecution of these figures would be a triumph of the democratic state against the power of the military. To others - including some pro-Western liberals - the military, for all their faults, have been the guarantors of the secular constitution.

"It's a fight that the rest of the world can only look on from the outside, with the hope that the AK Party proves to be far less determined in its religious designs than its opponents believe. For one thing is certain. Turkey has suffered too long from military intervention in its political affairs. If it is to be truly modern, it has to make the division clear and absolute," the article says.