Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 22 2008
Court links Ergenekon to Malatya murder case
The judge presiding over the brutal murder of three Christians last
year in a Malatya publishing house has announced that the indictment
against Ergenekon, a criminal organization accused of plotting to
overthrow the government, has been merged with the Malatya murder
case.
The 13th hearing of the Malatya case was held yesterday at the Malatya
Third High Criminal Court. The presiding judge announced that the
Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal Court, which is trying Ergenekon
suspects, had sent his court a copy of the Ergenekon indictment in
response to the Malatya court’s query to the possibility of merging
the two cases. Judge Eray Gürtekin said the Ergenekon
indictment has now been merged with the Christian murders case. He
also said the Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal Court had been sent a
copy of the publishing house murders case.
Ergenekon is a behind-the-scenes network attempting to use social and
psychological engineering to shape the country in accordance with its
own ultra-nationalist ideology. The group is suspected not only in the
Malatya murder case, but also in various other attacks and
assassinations, including the killing of Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink in early 2007. The decision marks an important step in the course
of the trial, during which lawyers representing the victims’ families
had continuously insisted that the murder of the three Christians was
not simply a hate crime, but something that goes much deeper.
Recent evidence collected in the Ergenekon investigation also suggests
that the brutal killings might have been organized by Ergenekon, which
is suspected of a large number of murders and bombings aimed at
creating chaos in the country to serve the organization’s ultimate
purpose of overthrowing the government.
Ergenekon hearing highlights
Meanwhile, the 17th trial in the Ergenekon case was heard
yesterday. The Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal Court is hearing the
case in a makeshift courtroom inside Silivri Prison near
Ä°stanbul.
Yesterday’s highlight from the courtroom came from suspect Halil
Behiç Gürcihan, who proposed to Fatma Sibel
Yüksek in the middle of the court room. He said he was taken
into custody at a time when the couple planned to get married.
Meanwhile, Yüksek said she was confounded by the proposal and
even considering walking out of the courtroom.
Gürcihan also demanded yesterday that the court investigate
allegations that public prosecutor Zekeriya Ã-z — one of the three
prosecutors who prepared the Ergenekon indictment — paid visits to
convicts in the TekirdaÄ? and Kandıra prisons and
proposed that they claim to have carried out some of their attacks in
the name of the Ergenekon organization.
He also accused Ã-z of being behind the death of Kuddusi
Okkır, an Ergenekon suspect who died two months ago while
undergoing cancer treatment shortly after being released due to health
reasons. He claimed that Ã-z had bargained with Okkır in his
quest to produce illegal evidence and announced that he had filed a
criminal complaint against Ã-z on charges of "maliciously causing
death" and of "obtaining testimony by acting against the law."
Among the 86 Ergenekon suspects are retired Gen. Veli
Küçük and lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz, 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. Forty-six of the suspects are in custody, and
the rest have been released pending the outcome of the trial.
The existence of Ergenekon had 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 Ergenekon 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 alleged victims include
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; and
secularist academic Necip HablemitoÄ?lu, 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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I expected state support, says Malatya publishing house suspect A
court hearing the trial of suspects in the murder last year of three
Christians working at the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya has heard
the prison testimony of one of the chief suspects in the crime.
Emre Günaydın testified to the prosecutors on Nov. 14
and said he expected to see state support once he committed the
killings, a promise made by a man named Varol Bülent Aral, who
is also implicated in the case. Aral, initially called as a witness,
claims he saw Günaydın once for a 25-minute period;
Günaydın says Aral was the person who incited him and
the others to kill the three Christian missionaries.
On April 18, 2006 Christians Necati Aydın (35), UÄ?ur
Yüksel and German national Tilmann Ekkehart Geske (46) were
tied to their chairs, stabbed and tortured at the Zirve Publishing
House in the eastern Anatolian city of Malatya before their throats
were slit. The publishing house they worked for printed Bibles and
Christian literature. Other suspects, S.G., C.Ã-., H.T. and A.Y.,
whose full names cannot be disclosed because of their age, were caught
at the crime scene and immediately taken into
custody. Günaydın jumped from a third-story window while
attempting to escape from the police and was taken into custody
following a hospital stay.
22 November 2008, Saturday
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
