ERGENEKON UNVEILED: GANG CHARGED WITH TERROR, SUBVERSION

Today’s Zaman
July 15 2008
Turkey

Ä°stanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin yesterday announced at
a press conference that a long-awaited indictment against suspects
in the Ergenekon investigation has been completed and submitted to
a higher criminal court for review.

The indictment against Ergenekon, a shadowy criminal network made up of
retired — and possibly current — army members, academics, journalists
and others allegedly plotting a coup against the government, has
been in preparation for a year since the investigation started last
summer, when police discovered a house full of ammunition and guns
in Ä°stanbul’s Umraniye district.

Engin said the suspects are being accused of various crimes, such as
"membership in an armed terrorist group," "aiding and abetting an
armed terrorist organization," "attempting to destroy the government
of the Republic of Turkey or to block it from performing its duties,"
"inciting people to rebel against the Republic of Turkey," "being in
possession of explosives, using them, and inciting others to commit
these crimes," "inciting others to stage the 2006 Council of State
shooting and a hand grenade attack at the Cumhuriyet newspaper’s
Ä°stanbul office," "acquiring secret documents on national security,"
"recording personal data," "encouraging soldiers to disobey superiors,"
"openly provoking hatred and hostility" and other similar crimes. He
did not clarify which suspects were accused of which crimes.

Engin said the indictment included accusations against 86 suspects,
48 of whom are currently in custody. He also said the indictment
is 2,455 pages long. Two former senior generals arrested this month
are not yet being charged. Also, earlier press reports were wrong in
claiming that the indictment used as evidence excerpts from a diary
allegedly kept by retired Naval Force Commander Adm. Ozden Ornek.

The prosecutor made clear that a terrorist organization is not always
defined according to the conventional meaning. He said, "According
to Article 1 of the anti-terror law, those who are convicted of
endangering the existence of the Turkish Republic, weakening,
destroying or seizing the authority of the state, eliminating
fundamental rights and freedoms or damaging the internal and external
security of the state and public order are considered perpetrators
of terrorism."

Council of State and Cumhuriyet attacks

Although the link between Ergenekon and the 2006 Council of State
shooting and a hand grenade thrown at the staunchly secularist
Cumhuriyet daily had been established previously by some media
organs, this is the first time the group is formally being accused
of having incited the perpetrators, who, in the wake of the attacks,
had appeared to be religious fundamentalists. Documents seized during
the Ergenekon investigation over the past year have shown, one after
another, that the group had staged and also planned a large number of
politically motivated attacks and assassinations to create chaos and
fear in the country, which they hoped would eventually trigger a coup
d’état and foment public opinion supporting military intervention.

The chief prosecutor said documents and evidence gathered during
the operations carried out in the investigation into the Umraniye
arms depot had continued to this day with the work of three public
prosecutors authorized by the relevant articles of the Code on Criminal
Procedure (CMK).

He said the three prosecutors have prepared an indictment regarding
the parts of the investigation that have been completed so far. Engin
said the indictment was presented to the Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal
Court through Turkey’s National Judiciary Network Project (UYAP)
after review by the authorized deputy chief prosecutor.

Lengthy preparation period

The prosecutor said that the latest wave of detentions and arrests in
the Ergenekon investigation, which came on July 1, 2008, had launched
a new phase in the investigation. He said another indictment would
be presented for the individuals detained in the latest operation.

"One of the topics criticized most frequently by media organs as well
as the public about the indictment was that its preparation took more
than a year," the prosecutor said, explaining: "According to the public
prosecutors, the preparation of the indictment, comprising 2,455 pages
and backed by 441 folders of evidence, has extended to today due
to a number of unavoidable reasons, such as the large scope of the
investigation, the large number of suspects being held, hundreds of
thousands of pages of documents acquired at the end of technical and
physical operations and searches requiring more operations in turn,
ordering, classifying and reviewing of these documents, expecting
official replies from institutions that have been queried about these
documents and the necessity brought by the new CMK that every single
evidence forming the basis of an indictment should be collected before
a case can be opened."

Engin also said the condition of those who were taken into custody and
arrested had been reviewed throughout the investigation on a monthly
basis by various courts, which have all ruled to keep the suspects
in jail.

The chief prosecutor noted that the court to which the indictment
had been presented had not yet announced its decision on whether the
indictment has been accepted or rejected. Until the indictment is
approved by the court, the confidentiality of the document will be
observed, Engin said. He said it was not possible at this time to
make a detailed explanation about the indictment or the case.

The prosecutor emphasized that the various crimes he had read out loud
at the beginning of the press conference were not being attributed to
all of the suspects. He said under a provision of the Article 220 of
the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) "leaders of organizations are penalized,
additionally, as perpetrators of the crimes committed during the
activities of the organization."

Who are the Ergenekon suspects?

The gang is accused of a number of failed coup attempts planned by
some of the suspects while serving in the military as high-ranking
generals. According to news reports, the indictment uses as evidence
documents seized in the suspects’ offices and homes during the
Ergenekon investigation which revealed that some retired generals had
attempted to stage four coups against the Justice and Development Party
(AK Party) government.

The indictment claims Ergenekon operations were behind the killing of a
senior judge in a 2006 shooting at the Council of State. News reports
earlier linked the group to the assassination of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead by an ultranationalist
teenager in January 2007, but it is not yet clear whether the
indictment makes this accusation.

Retired generals HurÅ~_it Tolon and Å~^ener Eruygur, who were both
arrested in the latest wave of operations this year on suspicion of
"setting up and leading an armed gang," have not yet been charged. The
powerful chairman of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO), Sinan
Aygun, who will be indicted separately along with the other suspects
who were taken into custody earlier this month, was released yesterday.

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More than 100 journalists cover Ergenekon announcement A press
conference called yesterday by Ä°stanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz
Engin to make an announcement regarding the Ergenekon indictment was
covered by a large crowd of national and international media entities.

Engin called the conference for 11 a.m. initially, but the
announcement actually began 15 minutes earlier. In addition to nearly
100 journalists, 40 TV cameras and 21 live TV crews, foreign press
agencies including Al Jazeera, The Associated Press, Reuters and Iran’s
Press TV showed up to cover the announcement. The press conference,
held in front of the BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ Courthouse in central Ä°stanbul,
was broadcast live on virtually all of Turkey’s TV stations.

Engin read the five-page text of his announcement from a podium during
the nearly 20-minute press conference. At the end of the statement,
he replied to a single question regarding the reason the operation had
been named "Ergenekon." The chief prosecutor said the word Ergenekon
was used by the group to refer to themselves and that the name had
nothing to do with the prosecutors. Police officers serving at the
BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ Courthouse yesterday had tightened security both inside
and outside of the courthouse during the conference.

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