TURKEY: POLICE TARGET NATIONALIST GANGS AFTER FAILED COUP ATTEMPT
AKI
Security/?id=1.0.1806161685
Jan 24 2008
Italy
Istanbul, 24 Jan. (AKI) – Turkish police have arrested dozens of
people, including former army officers, lawyers, journalists and
religious leaders, allegedly involved in a planned coup d’etat against
the government.
According to Turkish media reports, the suspects come from a
nationalist organisation called Ergenekon and are alleged to have
planned political murders and bomb attacks in a bid to replace the
government in 2009.
Thirty-three suspects linked to the Ergenekon operation, including
retired general Veli Kucuk, were arrested on Tuesday. Controversial
nationalist lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, who filed lawsuits against Turkish
writers and intellectuals, was also detained in the police swoop.
On Wednesday, the police conducted searches at the office of attorney
Kerincsiz and the office of the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate as well
as at several other places related to the suspects.
The nationalist gang is suspected of involvement in several of violent
attacks in Turkey, including the murder of an Italian priest in 2006,
the assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and the murder
of three Christians in the city of Malatya in 2007.
The group was also reported to have been planning the murder of Nobel
Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk who divides his time between the US
and Turkey.
Turkish media reports said the suspects had been taken to hospital
for a routine checkup but had not yet been formally charged.
Media reports said the 33 suspects had been accused of having "obtained
secret information, revealed state secrets, taken part in the creation
of a terrorist group".
According to the Turkish daily, Sabah, a lengthy investigation had
produced 460 telephone intercepts and 40 house searches in the cities
of Istanbul, Bursa and Smirne.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the police action showed
Turkey’s determination to bring an end to state and military-linked
gangs
Erdogan said his government had been successful in fighting gangs
and organised crime.
"This has been ongoing for four to five years. In addition to our
security forces there is also a process that the judiciary has been
conducting," he said.
"This is something we are happy about. This last incident concerning
such crimes has shown in the clearest way that the executive branch
and the judiciary are working in a wonderful solidarity."
Turkish media said the police had been observing the actions of
the suspects for at least eight months as part of an investigation
into a house full of explosives and ammunition found in Ýstanbul’s
Umraniye district.
Daily newspaper, Today’s Zaman, said documents obtained by the police
during the raid confirm that in the past two years the suspects
considered assassinating Osman Baydemir, a member of the pro-Kurdish
Democratic Society Party (DTP), the mayor of the mainly Kurdish
southeastern province Diyarbakýr.
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