The proceedings against General Saldiray Berk, head of the Third Army, and the prosecutor Ilhan Cihaner began in the city of Erzurum, some two months after they were charged along with 12 other co-defendants.

Berk, a four star general whose brigade is based in the eastern city of Erzincan, is the highest-ranking serving officer to go on trial as part of the three-year probe into the so-called Ergenekon network.

However the general was not present at Tuesday's hearing in Erzurum, citing an assignment in the capital Ankara, Anatolia said.

The case against Berk and his co-suspects is one of the most controversial to have emerged from the probe into a secularist network which allegedly planned to foment political chaos and thus trigger a coup against the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.

Their arrest was the culmination of a dramatic series of events that saw rival prosecutors clash, and police and secret agents pull guns on each other.

Prosecutors argue the general headed a local group linked to Ergenekon and Cihaner, Erzincan's chief prosecutor, was a key collaborator.

They are accused of an attempted plan to discredit Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a major AKP supporter.

The suspects allegedly plotted to plant drugs and weapons in the homes of the cleric's student followers and then seize them in operations aimed at blacklisting the brotherhood as a terror group.

The plot was allegedly part of a broader plan to destabilise the AKP, drawn up by a colonel who will stand trial in a separate case.

The defendants, who include eight soldiers and three intelligence officers risk up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

Berk has refused to testify in the probe and the military has dismissed the charges.

Prosecutors have been heavily criticised over the indictment, which is based almost entirely on testimony by secret witnesses.

Critics charge the case is part of a government-sponsored campaign to bully opponents and discredit the staunchly-secularist army.

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