Today’s Zaman, Turkey
July 4 2007
Gang found to be linked to retired army officers
Nineteen members of the Patriotic Forces Union of Power Movement
Association (VKGB), taken into custody on Monday after an extensive
operation by the Anti-Organized Crime and Smuggling Department of the
Ankara Police, have been referred to court after their interrogation
at the police station on Tuesday.
The results of the investigation are likely to have heavy political
consequences, as the group, in addition to suggestions of involvement
in organized crime, seems to have planned and staged a number of
illegal acts during political demonstrations. Phone records of
conversations, recorded during a 14-month police operation that led
to Monday’s arrests, reveal curious links between the suspects and
former army members, as well as an opposition politician. Operation
Whirl started 14 months ago upon the orders of the Interior Ministry,
which, on the suspicion of corruption of the association’s accounts,
alerted the Ankara chief public prosecutor.
The police investigation, including wiring cellular phone lines
belonging to the group’s members, was initiated on an order from the
public prosecutor. Police in Ankara monitored every step the suspects
took during the past 14 months right up until Monday’s operation.
The suspects are also being accused of provoking the participants of
mass demonstrations, dubbed "republican rallies," held in the spring,
where hundreds of thousands protested the government. The claim is
based on information gathered from phone conversations under police
monitoring since the start of the investigation.
The investigators found that a senior administrator from the
Republican People’s Party (CHP) had sent YTL 600 for transportation
of those VKGB members going to republican rallies, a piece of
information obtained from phone conversation records.
The investigation found that the criminal network obtained its orders
from an individual code named "Number One," however the police was
not able to clarify the identity of the mysterious master. Number One
is mentioned in many of the phone conversations among the suspects,
with deep respect and apparent feelings of allegiance. None of the
suspects revealed the name of this person during their interrogation
yesterday.
Records of conversations between retired Gen. Hasan Kundakçý and head
of the VKGB’s Konya Branch Vehbi Þanlý also found their way into the
prosecutor’s file at the end of the investigation.
Phone records also prove that for the suspects, "funerals of martyred
soldiers are events that need to be participated in with enthusiasm."
Many other political rallies, including one where nut growers in the
Black Sea protested against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan in
2006, were visited by members of the group, phone records showed.
The investigation also revealed that a group the police had to stop
during the first republican rally, the only incident during the calm
and eventless demonstration, was none other than the VKGB.
The operation consisted of simultaneous raids in the capital, the
southern cities of Mersin and Anatolia, Ýstanbul, the central
Anatolian city of Konya, the northern city of Giresun, the
southwestern city of Muðla, the western city of Ýzmir and the
southeastern city of Diyarbakýr. VKGB President Taner Ünal and senior
administrators identified as Ahmet C., Vehbi Þ., Salih Zeki B., Yasin
A., Levent B., Mesut S., Ahmet K., Halit B., Savaþ K., Ýlhami D.,
Ahmet Y., Mehmet D., Mehmet B., Osman A., Mehmet Ali D., Mehmet E.
and Hüseyin T. were held during the operation.
The suspects are being charged with "founding an organization with
the intent of perpetrating a crime, leadership and membership in a
crime organization, pillaging, tender fraud, falsification of
documents, embezzlement, swindling, smuggling of historical items,
illegal collation of donations, financing the crime organization and
staging provocative acts aiming to undermine the independence of the
state; abolishing the Republic of Turkey or trying to prevent it from
functioning partially or completely."
Aimed to steal YTL 100,000 from martyr’s wife
In addition the suspects are being accused of 40 different crimes
including "an attempt to swindle YTL 100,000 from the wife of a major
who was martyred, shooting firearms at homes, businesses and
automobiles, kidnapping, torturing, wounding with a firearm,
provocative actions during martyrs’ funerals at various times and
threatening a newspaper correspondent in Diyarbakýr."
A large number and variety of weapons including a hand grenade, guns,
rifles, bullets, steel vests and gas masks were seized in the
operation in addition to official stamps belonging to state agencies,
historical arts items and a large number of fake IDs belonging to
press organizations, the military and the police were seized during
the operation. The police have not yet completed ballistic tests on
the guns and ammunition seized.
Meanwhile, officials said two of the suspects had earlier been
detained and arrested for kidnapping and collecting due check
payments. Police officials said they would file a criminal complaint
to the chief of staff based on findings from the investigation
proving that the suspects have links to certain retired army
officials.
Gangs formed by retired army officers, a relatively new phenomenon in
Turkey, were found to have connections to the Council of State
shooting in 1996, where a senior judge was killed. Recently, large
amounts of ammunition were found being stored in two homes in
Ýstanbul and Eskiþehir. During the investigation, two retired army
members with links to other crimes, including the Council of State
shooting and an attempted murder of the president of a human rights
group, were detained.
Lawyers of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist slain by a
teenage gunman in January, claim that an organized crime gang with
links to the arms depot discoveries in Eskiþehir and Ýstanbul is
behind the murder.
04.07.2007
SEDAT GÜNEÇ ANKARA
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
