ELEVEN TAKEN INTO CUSTODY FOR ERGENEKON INVESTIGATION

BIA
Sept 19 2008
Turkey

Eleven people have been taken into custody in Ankara and Istanbul in
connection with the Ergenekon investigation. Nurseli Ä°diz, Seyhan
Soylu and Levent Temiz, who had threatened Hrant Dink, were among
those taken into custody.

Eleven people have been taken into custody in operations conducted
in connection with the Ergenekon investigation today. Some of those
taken into custody are actress Nurseli Ä°diz, former president of Ulku
Ocakları (Hearths of the Ideal, an organization associated with the
Grey Wolves) and lawyer Levent Temiz and Seyhan Soylu.

Police went to Temiz’s house early in the morning and searched it
with a lawyer present. He was taken into custody after the search.

Likewise, the houses of actress Idiz and organizer Soylu were
searched as well. Ä°diz had played Ataturk in Soylu’s "Republican
Women Project".

In Ankara, eight people were apprehended in connection with the
investigation. The suspects will be sent to Istanbul after their
medical exam. Six computers, one laptop, CD’s and documents were
seized with these people.

Temiz had stormed an exhibition and threatened Hrant Dink Together with
a group including Ramazan Kırkık of the Union of Non-Governmental
Organizations of Turkey, former president of Ulku Ocakları (Hearths
of the Ideal) Temiz had stormed an exhibition titled "September
6-7 Incidents" and organized by ‘KarÅ~_ı Sanat CalıÅ~_maları’
(Anti Art Works) together with the History Foundation of Turkey in
Galatasaray, Istanbul.

The attackers had tried to destroy the pictures in the exhibition
by throwing eggs at them. Not satisfied with the damage, they had
also thrown some of the pictures from the balcony to the street,
to be stepped on by their friends waiting there.

Temiz had also threatened Hrant Dink, murdered founder and chief
editor of Agos, weekly Armenian Turkish newspaper, after Dink had
written an article claiming that Ataturk’s adopted daughter and the
first woman pilot of Turkey Sabiha Gökcen was really an Armenian,
a survivor of 1915.

The discussions that had started after the article had quickly turned
into provocations and a group of Hearths of the Ideal members had
marched from the Å~^iÅ~_li Branch office of the Nationalist Movement
Party (MHP) to the Agos building at Pangaltı, just a hundred meters
away, while chanting slogans such as "Either love it or leave it",
"Down with Asala".

Speaking on behalf of the group in front of the Agos building, Temiz
had threatened Hrant Dink and told the crowd that he was the target
of their hate.

However, the authorities had decided to prosecute Temiz not for
"dangerous provocation leading to hatred and hostility", but for
"opposing the Law for Meetings and Demonstrations.

–Boundary_(ID_yhmkR0gkiLI0bWl3qd SHaw)–