DEFENSE SUBMITS STATEMENTS IN ERGENEKON TRIAL

Today’s Zaman
Nov 12 2008
Turkey

Suspects in the trial against Ergenekon, a criminal network accused
of plotting to overthrow the government, started giving defense
testimonies in the 12th hearing of the trial, which began Oct. 3. The
massive indictment against the suspects was read aloud first because
of demands from some of the suspects’ lawyers.

The first defendant, out of 86 in total, to testify was Oktay
Yıldırım, a retired noncommissioned army officer with alleged links
to hand grenades discovered inside a house used as an arms depot in
Ä°stanbul’s Umraniye district in summer 2007. The discovery set off
the Ergenekon investigation.

According to the indictment, one hand grenade had the same serial
number as those used in an attack at a café. Yıldırım is allegedly
implicated in supplying these hand grenades.

In his testimony on Tuesday, Yıldırım said: "Neither my lawyer
nor I saw those hand grenades [in the Umraniye house]. The court that
ruled that they be detonated did not see them, either." The ammunition
found in Umraniye was exploded in accordance with a court order. He
said the allegations against him were political and groundless. "I
am proud to be here," he said.

He also said that Mehmet DemirtaÅ~_, who allegedly is the owner of
the house, was only a renter and that he had moved from the house a
year and a half before the police operation in 2007.

He said that since his retirement from the military, he had been
publishing articles on various Web sites. "I continue my struggle with
my pen, not by establishing illegal gangs as is the case against me,"
he said.

The Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal Court is hearing the case in a
makeshift courtroom inside Silivri Prison near Ä°stanbul. Among the
86 suspects are retired Gen. Veli Kucuk; lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz,
who is known for filing lawsuits against intellectuals over writings
that question or criticize the state line on issues such as Armenian
allegations of genocide; and retired Capt. Muzaffer Tekin. Forty-six of
the suspects are in custody, and the rest have been released pending
the outcome of the trial.

Meanwhile, the panel of judges issued warrants for those suspects
who are not in custody and who did not attend yesterday’s hearing
without citing an excuse.

Ergenekon-Å~^emdinli link

Meanwhile, new information that surfaced yesterday points to links
between the Ergenekon gang and the two noncommissioned officers
who were caught red-handed in the bombing of a bookstore owned by
a former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) member in the southeastern
city of Å~^emdinli in Hakkari.

In the November 2005 Å~^emdinli bombing, noncommissioned officers
Ali Kaya and Ozcan Ä°ldeniz, and a PKK informant, Veysel AteÅ~_, were
caught bombing a bookstore owned by a former member of the terrorist
PKK. The next day, a sergeant was later captured on suspicion of
opening fire on a prosecutor during the investigation following the
incident. The prosecutor was not harmed during the shooting, but a
bystander was killed.

Records of an investigation from 2001 into the disappearances of
Serdar TanıÅ~_ and Ebubekir Deniz show that AteÅ~_ was part of a
structure formed by senior Gen. Levent Ersöz, who is being sought
as an Ergenekon suspect. He is presumed to be in Russia. The families
of the two men, who mysteriously disappeared in Silopi in 2001 while
in custody, have filed for co-plaintiff status in the Ergenekon case.

The trial of Kaya, Ozcan and AteÅ~_ continued for three years, but it
began from scratch earlier this year after two years of hearings. The
suspects had not been arrested in the initial investigation by the
Å~^emdinli Public Prosecutor’s Office. The prosecutor referred the
case to the Van Public Prosecutor’s office, ruling it outside its
jurisdiction.

The Van prosecutor, Ferhat Sarıkaya, ordered the arrests of the
suspects, who were later indicted and tried in a Van court for "staging
acts targeting the unity of the state and the integrity of the country,
murder, attempted murder and causing physical injury." Sarıkaya
also started a number of investigations into top army commanders,
including Gen. YaÅ~_ar Buyukanıt, the then-land forces commander. In
the ensuing debate, Sarıkaya was disbarred by the Supreme Board of
Prosecutors and Judges (HSYK).

Turkey paid 172,000 euros in compensation to the victims’ families in
the TanıÅ~_ and Deniz case in a ruling by the European Court of Human
Rights. The court also ruled that a public case be launched against
Ersöz, who was then the provincial gendarmerie regiment commander;
gendarmerie official TaÅ~_kın Akgun; and gendarmerie intelligence
members Selim Gul and AteÅ~_, the PKK informant.

Ergenekon indictment

The existence of Ergenekon has long been suspected, but the current
investigation into the group began only in 2007, when a house in the
Umraniye district that was being used as an arms depot was discovered
by police.

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 for the ultimate purpose of triggering a
military coup and taking over the government. The victims include
secularist journalist Ugur Mumcu, long believed to have been
assassinated by Islamic extremists in 1993; the head of a business
conglomerate, Ozdemir 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; and secularist academic Necip
Hablemitoglu, who was also believed to have been killed by Islamic
extremists in 2002.

Suspects face various charges, including "membership in an armed
terrorist group," "attempting to destroy the government," "inciting
people to rebel against the Republic of Turkey" and other similar
crimes.

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