Zaman Online, Turkey
July 28 2008
Ergenekon terror machine targeted soul of Turkey
Unresolved high-profile murders, terror groups and criminal gangs have
stood in the way of political normalization and stability in
crisis-prone Turkey for decades, but an indictment on Ergenekon, a
criminal network suspected of plotting a coup against the government,
suggests these seemingly unrelated crimes may be far from random.
A glance through the 2,455-page indictment, which some say
launched the trial of the century, reveals the discomforting
possibility that all the dark moments of Turkey’s recent history could
be the result of a deliberate attempt by a central network to create a
state within the state and an alternative establishment aimed at
steering politics.
"Our country has a bright future. The future will be better," said
President Abdullah Gül, when asked yesterday to comment on the
Ergenekon case while in his hometown of Kayseri. He declined to
comment further, saying only that the court will fulfill its duties
and make its decision on the case.
The indictment, made public on Friday, says the Ergenekon network
was behind a series of earth-shattering political assassinations over
the past two decades. The victims include a secularist journalist,
UÄ?ur Mumcu, long believed to have been assassinated by Islamic
extremists in 1993; head of a business conglomerate, Ã-zdemir
Sabancı, who was shot dead by militants of the extreme-left
Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) in his
high-security office in 1996; secularist academic Necip
HablemitoÄ?lu, who is also believed to have been killed by
Islamic groups in 2002; and an attack on the Council of State in 2006
that left a senior judge dead. Alparslan Arslan, found guilty of this
last assault, said he attacked the court to protest an anti-headscarf
decision it had made, but the indictment contains evidence that he had
been in touch with Ergenekon and that his family received large sums
of money from unidentified sources after the shooting.
The indictment also says Veli Küçük, believed
to be one of the leading members of the network, had threatened Hrant
Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist slain by a teenager in 2007,
before his murder, a sign that Ergenekon could be behind his death as
well.
The indictment uncovered questionable relations between Ergenekon and
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the DHKP/C, raising
serious suspicions that Ergenekon might have played a role in inciting
ethnic hatred between Turks and Kurds and increasing sectarian
tensions between Sunnis and Alevis by a series of provocative acts.
"I felt grief as I read through the indictment," wrote Serdar Turgut,
editor-in-chief of the AkÅ?am daily. Recalling deadly clashes of
the past between rival social groups, which the indictment now says
were all instigated by Ergenekon, Turgut wrote: "Those who killed,
those who were killed, and us, who tried to build a set of ideas to
get our country out of chaos. It turns out that we lived a wasted
life. It turns out we were all puppets."
The existence of Ergenekon was exposed following a police raid last
summer on a house being used as an arms depot in Ä°stanbul’s
Ã`mraniye district. A detailed investigation into the explosives
and suspects detained in the raid suggests that scandalous acts that
have dragged the country from one chaotic scenario to another were
inspired by Ergenekon, which had members from almost all segments of
society, including retired army officers, academics, journalists and
businessmen.
A total of 86 suspects, 47 of whom are currently under arrest, are
accused of having suspicious links with the gang. Suspects will start
appearing before the court as of Oct. 20 and will face accusations
that include "membership in an armed terrorist group," "attempting to
destroy the government," "inciting people to rebel against the
Republic of Turkey," and other similar crimes.
Documents seized during the Ergenekon investigation over the past year
suggest that the group had staged and also planned a cascade of
politically motivated attacks and assassinations to create chaos and
fear in the country, which they hoped would eventually trigger a coup
and lead the public to support such military intervention.
28 July 2008, Monday
TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES Ä°STANBUL
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress