Turkish Daily News, Turkey
Jan 28 2008

‘Untouchables’ nabbed in raid
Monday, January 28, 2008

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

ISTANBUL – TDN with wire dispatches

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
(JÝTEM). Despite various allegations against him, Küçük has remained
virtually untouchable for the last decade.

The crackdown follows a promise by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan 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 report.

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 reports
yesterday.

High-profile names:

Those arrested include Ret. Col. Fikri Karadað, 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 Hoþtan.

Kerinçsiz gained notoriety for leading campaigns against prominent
intellectuals including novelists Orhan Pamuk, Elif Þafak and
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered in January
2007.

Among detainees released on Friday was columnist Güler Kömürcü of
daily Akþam, 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 reports. Mass-circulation daily Hürriyet said
Nobel literature prize laureate Orhan Pamuk was on the `hit list,’
while other newspapers reported 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 reports.
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 Muðlalý, 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. Muðlalý 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 Ýlhami Erdil,
who was arrested last year on charges of illegal enrichment.

The Þemdinli 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 Deðer, a member of the CHP executive board, said during the
party’s district congress in Van, 1,250 kilometers east of Ankara.

`In the Þemdinli case, the accused were set free,’ Deðer was quoted
as saying by the Doðan 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 Þemdinli case takes its name from Hakkari’s Þemdinli 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.