http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=94845&
Monday, January 28, 2008
'Untouchables' nabbed in raid
A new chapter opens in the investigation into the 'Ergenekon' gang, which
some claim is part of Turkey's deep state. 'The court decides that 13
suspects be arrested, among them Ret Gen Veli Küçük
After a record amount of time in Istanbul's 13th Criminal Court, eight
alleged members of the “Ergenekon” gang – including a former top
military
commander – were arrested at the beginning of the weekend on charges of
“provoking armed rebellion against the government.” With Saturday's
arrests
the total number of arrested has risen to 13. Among those arrested is Ret.
Brig. General Veli Küçük, the alleged founder of the Gendarmerie
Intelligence Anti-Terror Unit (JİTEM). Despite various allegations
against
him, Küçük has remained virtually untouchable for the last decade.
The crackdown follows a promise by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
to
eradicate clandestine hard-line nationalist groups that allegedly target
people they consider to be a threat to the country's unity, The Associated
Press said in a re****t.
Following a four-day police interrogation, the suspects were taken to
court late Friday where they were interrogated by the prosecutor until 5
a.m. Saturday. They were then taken to appear in front of the judge by 5
p.m. on the same day, after which 13 of them, including Küçük, were
arrested
and imprisoned, according to newspaper re****ts yesterday.
High-profile names:
Those arrested include Ret. Col. Fikri Karadağ, president of the
“Kuvayi
Milliye” (National Forces) Association, lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz, the
public
relations representative of the Turkish Orthodox Church, Sevgi Erenerol,
and
alleged mafia boss Sami Hoştan.
Kerinçsiz gained notoriety for leading campaigns against prominent
intellectuals including novelists Orhan Pamuk, Elif Şafak and
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered in January 2007.
Among detainees released on Friday was columnist Güler Kömürcü of
daily
Akşam, a lawyer, Fuat Turgut who defended an alleged instigator in the
Dink
murder and Ali Yasak, an alleged crime boss.
The suspects were all taken into custody after a police raid in
Istanbul's
Ümraniye district in June that uncovered dozens of hand grenades. The
grenades were seized at the home of a retired, non-commissioned military
officer.
The suspects were “preparing to assassinate a leading figure,”
according
to press re****ts. Mass-circulation daily Hürriyet said Nobel literature
prize laureate Orhan Pamuk was on the “hit list,” while other
newspapers
re****ted that pro-Kurdish politicians Leyla Zana and Ahmet Türk were also
targets of the shadowy organization.
Provoking a coup?:
The gang “hoped” that the chaos after those murders would provoke a
military coup that would topple the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government, according to various newspaper re****ts. Nationalists and
ultra-nationalists accuse the government of having a hidden “Islamic
agenda,” and for making too many concessions to the European Union.
A court has issued a news blackout on the investigation into the gang.
With the arrests Küçük became the third former – or actual –
member of the
powerful Turkish military to be imprisoned. Throughout the Republic's
history only two other “pashas” have been arrested: The first one was
General Mustafa Muğlalı, charged with ordering the killing of 32 Kurdish
peasants who were caught smuggling goods from the Iranian border and
accused
of stealing livestock. The peasants were executed by a shooting squad on
July 30, 1943. Muğlalı was tried at a military court three years later
and
was sentenced to 20 years of prison, but died in prison in 1951.
The second “pasha” to be put behind bars was Admiral İlhami Erdil,
who was
arrested last year on charges of illegal enrichment.
The Şemdinli bombing:
Meanwhile, in an unusually harsh speech Saturday, a former lawmaker
from
the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) pointed to the many
unresolved murder cases in the southeast.
“The real Ergenekon are those that have killed people in the
[southeast]
region with identity cards given by the state itself,” Mesut Değer, a
member
of the CHP executive board, said during the party's district congress in
Van, 1,250 kilometers east of Ankara.
“In the Şemdinli case, the accused were set free,” Değer was
quoted as
saying by the Doğan news agency, referring to another shadow case. “Now
we
see the start of the Ergenekon case. What is Ergenekon? They say it is
defending the unity of the state. Are we aiming for something else? The
real
Ergenekon are those that have their signatures on many unsolved murders in
this region,” he said.
The Şemdinli case takes its name from Hakkari's Şemdinli town, some
1,500
kilometers southeast of Ankara. On Nov. 9, 2005, a bookstore in the town
belonging to a former member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK)
was bombed, leaving one person dead. Minutes after the attack locals
caught
the alleged criminals and handed them over to the police. The identities
of
the suspects created controversy, as two were active sergeants on duty and
the third one was a former PKK confessor. On the same day, as CHP Hakkari
deputy Esat Canan and a state prosecutor were mobilized to investigate the
incident, they were fired upon and a second person was killed in this
attack. Claiming clandestine state forces were on a killing spree, locals
at
various towns in Hakkari protested in the streets, and three more people
were killed during clashes between the police and protesters.
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