Zaman Online, Turkey
July 28 2008
Shadowy network behind unresolved political murders, says indictment
An indictment into Ergenekon, a political crime gang allegedly making
preparations to topple the government, claims that the gang was behind
a series of unresolved assassinations and was readying to perpetrate
bloody attacks on several high-profile personalities.
The indictment, made public on Friday, said the Ergenekon network
incited the perpetrators of deadly attacks on some important public
figures. The victims include Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant
Dink, journalist UÄ?ur Mumcu, businessman Ã-zdemir
Sabancı and writer and scientist Necip HablemitoÄ?lu. The
gang was also planning to launch bloody assaults against several
high-profile personalities, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an, Chief of General Staff Gen. YaÅ?ar
BüyükanÄ&#x B1;t, journalist Fehmi Koru and Nobel
Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk.
Cumhuriyet daily columnist Mumcu, a leading figure in investigative
journalism, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb placed under his
car on Jan. 24, 1993. He was long believed to have been assassinated
by Islamic extremists. However, the Ergenekon indictment stated that a
document found during a search of a ranch house belonging to retired
Brig. Gen. Veli Küçük, arrested in the Ergenekon
operation in January, showed that a six-member Israeli group, under
the direction of US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), infiltrated
Turkey to assassinate journalists Mumcu and Mehmet Ali Birand to
prevent Turkey from being ruled by a religious administration. The
said document was undersigned by an official from the National
Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T).
Professor HablemitoÄ?lu was shot dead in front of his house on
Dec. 18, 2002. He was also believed to have been killed by an Islamic
group and the perpetrator of his assassination was never
identified. The indictment claims that HablemitoÄ?lu’s shooting
was inspired by the Ergenekon network. The document cited Internet
chat conversations of Habib Ã`mit Sayın — a lecturer at
Ä°stanbul University who was taken into custody earlier this
month for suspected links with the gang — with an individual whose
identity was not revealed regarding the HablemitoÄ?lu
assassination. Sayın told the mysterious individual on MSN
messenger that HablemitoÄ?lu might be killed in one year. "He is
afraid because neither the MÄ°T nor the police are behind
him. He will most probably be killed by next year," Sayın
wrote.
Top Turkish businessman Sabancı was shot dead in his
high-security office in 1996. Sabancı was killed by militants
of the extreme-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front
(DHKP/C). The indictment, however, said the assassination wasn’t
solely perpetrated by the organization. It stated that the names of
Fehriye Erdal, Mustafa Duyar and Ä°smail Akkol (the perpetrators
of the assassination) were noted in a document that was prepared eight
days before the shooting and later seized during a police raid at the
ultra-nationalist and anti-European Union weekly
Aydınlık. The indictment said it would be impossible to
turn a blind eye to the link between the document, the Sabancı
assassination and Ergenekon.
The indictment also noted that Küçük, believed to
be one of the masterminds of the network, had threatened 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. Dink
was shot dead in broad daylight outside the office of his bilingual
newspaper, Agos, in Ä°stanbul on Jan. 19, 2007, and an
investigation in the wake of his assassination revealed that a group
of ultra-nationalist youths were behind the murder. The indictment
revealed that some members of the group were closely monitored by
Ergenekon both prior to and after the Dink shooting.
28 July 2008, Monday
TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES Ä°STANBUL