CELEBRITY SUSPECTS OF ERGENEKON SEYHAN SOYLU AND NURSELI Ä°DIZ WERE RELEASED BY A BEÅ~_IKTAÅ~_ COURT.

Today’s Zaman
23 September 2008, Tuesday
Turkey

Ergenekon suspect Eruygur barred from international travel

A key suspect in the investigation into Ergenekon, a criminal
network suspected of having plotted to overthrow the government,
who was released on Sunday due to health problems has been barred
from leaving the country.

Å~^ener Eruygur, a retired general believed to have been in the higher
ranks of Ergenekon, was released by order of the Ä°stanbul 9th Higher
Criminal Court after he suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result of a
head injury in a fall last week. Eruygur was barred from traveling
abroad until the end of the Ergenekon trial, which is scheduled to
start on Oct. 21. International travel bans in cases such as Eruygur’s
unexpected release go into effect immediately.

The head of the Kocaeli University Education and Research Hospital said
yesterday that Eruygur was still in critical condition and that it
was up to Eruygur’s family to decide whether to transfer the patient
to another hospital.

"Their initial decision was to keep him in our hospital. I don’t know
if their decision will change in the days ahead," he added.

Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Å~^ahin, in a statement released about
Eruygur’s condition yesterday, said he was sorry to hear that Eruygur
had such a thing happen to him. Å~^ahin said he hoped Eruygur would
regain his health as soon as possible. He also noted that there was
currently no investigation regarding Eruygur’s fall in prison.

Meanwhile, Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ä°stanbul deputy Nur
Serter visited Eruygur’s family in the hospital and asked about
Eruygur’s condition.

In a related development, three well-known people who were among 19
detained last Thursday in police operations in five cities as part
of the Ergenekon investigation have been released by the court in
Ä°stanbul’s BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ district.

Actress Nurseli Ä°diz and Seyhan Soylu, a transsexual believed to
have organized a scheme that led up to a political scandal ahead of an
unarmed military intervention in 1997, who were among those taken into
police custody last week, were released by the court they had been
referred to by the investigation on Sunday. Another person detained
last week, Levent Temiz, a former chairman of the ultranationalist
youth clubs affiliated with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)
known as Ulku Ocakları, was released on Monday.

In his testimony at the court, Temiz said: "I am lawyer. I am
a patriotic person. It is impossible for me to participate in a
terrorist organization," reports said.

In his testimony he said he had met with Ergenekon suspects Kemal
Kerincsiz, Ahmet Uler, Erkan Aydemir and Mehmet Akif Tanroöver
and formed the Grand Jurists’ Association, known in the public for
its nationalism. "Kerinsciz filed lawsuits without our knowledge,"
he said, referring to the association’s filing of suits against
journalists and academics who contradicted the official state line
concerning Armenian genocide allegations or the Cyprus issue. "This
is why we quit the association with five other lawyers. We were never
consulted about these lawsuits."

He said he was introduced to Ergenekon suspect retired Capt. Muzaffer
Tekin at a demonstration in 2003 against the Annan plan for the
reunification of Cyprus. He also said he didn’t know Alparslan Arslan,
the shooter in an attack on the Council of State in 2006 that is now
believed to have been organized by Ergenekon.

Ä°diz told members of the press upon her release: "I see myself nowhere
in the Ergenekon investigation. Where can I be [in this]?" She also
said she didn’t want to say anything further as the case was currently
in progress. Stating that she hadn’t been directly accused of anything,
she added: "However, we were treated in a very civil way, both at
the organized crimes department and at the public prosecutor’s
office. Things have changed greatly in Turkey. We were happy to
see this."

Meanwhile, six more arrests were made in the Ergenekon investigation
yesterday and eight of the 19 people detained last week were referred
to court. Dogukan Yorulmaz was released by the court.

Five active army lieutenants and a military academy student also
detained in last week’s raids were arrested on Friday after being
interrogated.

The detentions of lieutenants on active army duty had come after
earlier Ergenekon detentions made on July 1, when suspects Kemal
Aydın, Neriman Aydın and National Forces 1919 Association
Secretary-General Ali Ozoglu were taken into custody for
interrogation. The prosecution, which knew at the time of frequent
meetings and phone conversations between the three suspects arrested
on July 1 and military academy students as well as young officers in
the military, was investigating whether Kemal, Aydın and Ozoglu were
trying to organize a group against the government in the military.

The meetings with military academy students are reminiscent of a failed
coup attempt on Feb. 22, 1962, when Land Forces War Academy Commander
Col. Talat Aydemir tried to organize a coup against the government
with academy students. Aydemir was forced to retire and jailed shortly
thereafter until May 10, 1962, when he was released under a special
pardon. However, he attempted yet another coup on May 21, 1963,
after which he was sentenced to capital punishment by a court along
with Maj. Fethi Gurcan. The two men were executed on July 5, 1964.

Nearly 50 suspected members, including retired army generals, are
currently in jail pending trial, scheduled for October.

–Boundary_(ID_lmAkHHrFLL/RIZ/LGPvO+A)–