Turkey tottering toward coup?

So it would seem, with the arrest of 24 people with alleged coup connections. The Turkish army has, of course, intervened in Ankara government in the past when it worried Turkey’s leaders were abandoning its secularist tradition.

This time, it looks like the arrests are a pre-emptive strike.

The sweep comes on the very day prosecutors presented an indictment to the Turkish Constitutional Court to close down Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party.

“It seems the government is throwing down the gauntlet to the key players in the secular camp,” said Erik Zurcher, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands and author of “Turkey: A Modern History.” “Perhaps it feels it has nothing left to lose because the party's closure will come anyway.”

Bloomberg notes the court ruled against Erdogan in a related case in June, striking down a law allowing women to wear Islamic-style headscarves at universities. Turkish law prohibits explicitly religious political activities, hence the case calling to disband Erdogan’s party.

Meanwhile, the turmoil has majorly roiled the Turkish stock and bond markets. I’m sure it doesn’t help the rocky path to EU membership, either.