Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sept 13 2008
No investigation into Ergenekon prosecutors, Justice Ministry announces
A statement from the press office of Justice Minister Mehmet Ali
Å?ahin on Friday announced that his ministry had denied a
request to initiate an investigation into prosecutors working on the
case of Ergenekon, a neo-nationalist gang believed to be the extension
of a clandestine network of groups with members in the armed forces
that planned to overthrow the government.
The possibility of launching a probe into the prosecutors conducting
the Ergenekon investigation had raised concerns in Turkey, where legal
proceedings against courageous judges and prosecutors fighting shadowy
dealings within the state structure are commonplace. However, the
statement released yesterday said the ministry had completed a review
of complaints filed against the prosecutors on the case and found no
reason to start an investigation. The statement said there was no
evidence indicating that the prosecutors have abused their duty,
authority or powers during the course of the investigation, and thus
no need for an investigation into any of them.
Ergenekon gang suspects currently in jail pending trial include
ex-army generals, academics, journalists and bosses of the crime
world.
In the past, another prosecutor in a similar situation, Van prosecutor
Ferhat Sarıkaya — who was investigating a bookstore bombing on
Nov 9. 2005 in the township of Å?emdinli in the southeastern
province of Hakkari, perpetrated by two-noncommissioned officers and a
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) member-turned-informant — was
disbarred by a higher judicial body supervising judges’ and
prosecutors’ dealings after indicting YaÅ?ar
BüyükanÄ&#x B1;t, the then-land forces commander who was
later promoted to chief of general staff.
Several legal figures had expressed concern earlier that the review of
complaints for a probe by the ministry might lead Ergenekon
prosecutors to the same fate as former Van prosecutor Sarıkaya.
What is Ergenekon?
The existence of Ergenekon, a behind-the-scenes network attempting to
use social and psychological engineering to shape the country in
accordance with its own ultranationalist ideology, has long been
suspected, but the current investigation into the group began only in
2007, when a house in Ä°stanbul’s Ã`mraniye district that was
being used as an arms depot was discovered by police.
The investigation was expanded to reveal elements of what in Turkey is
called the deep state, finally proving the existence of the network,
which is currently being accused of trying to incite chaos and
disorder in order to trigger a coup against the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party) government.
The indictment made public in July claims that the Ergenekon network
is behind a series of political assassinations carried out 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; the 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 was also believed to have been killed by
Islamic extremists, in 2002; and a 2006 attack on the Council of State
that left a senior judge dead. Alparslan Arslan, found guilty of the
Council of State killing, said he attacked the court in protest of an
anti-headscarf ruling it had made. But the indictment contains
evidence that he was connected with Ergenekon and that his family
received large sums of money from unidentified sources after the
shooting.
Eighty-six suspects, 47 of whom are currently under arrest, are
accused of having suspicious links to the gang. Suspects will start
appearing before the court on Oct. 20 and will face accusations that
include "membership in an armed terrorist group," "attempting to bring
down the government," "inciting people to rebel against the Republic
of Turkey" and other similar crimes.
The indictment also says Veli Küçük, believed to
be one of the leading members of the network, had threatened Hrant
Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist slain by a teenager in 2007,
before his murder — a sign that Ergenekon could be behind that murder
as well.
13 September 2008, Saturday
TODAY’S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL