ERGENEKON ARMS SITE UNEARTHED IN GOLBASHI

Today’s Zaman
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Jan 9 2009
Turkey

Police in Ankara discovered a munitions site in an investigation into
the Ergenekon terrorist organization. Weapons, flamethrowers and hand
grenades found buried under the ground appear to date from the year
2004. Other excavations are under way in various areas of the city.

A large cache of weapons, ammunition and bombs was found yesterday
buried underground in Ankara’s GölbaÅ~_ı district, as a result of
a police search based on a map found in the home of Ä°brahim Å~^ahin,
a former head of the National Police Department’s Special Operations
Unit. The operation came at a time when Å~^ahin had ordered the
assassination of non-Muslim minority leaders in Sivas.

Å~^ahin was detained along with 36 others on Wednesday in the
investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine network of groups and
individuals accused of trying to overthrow the government. Thirty
varieties of explosives and bombs as well as three lightweight
anti-tank weapons (LAWs) were found buried underground. The newspapers
wrapped around the weapons were from the year 2004, the police
said. According to the initial official list, there were a large
number of bullets for 9mm guns, two LAV weapons, 10 hand grenades
whose serial number had been deleted and 10 smoke bombs used in
training with colored smoke. Another boxed explosive and an ignition
mine were found in the first phases of the excavation, the police
said. The materials found have yet to be examined thoroughly at a
police crime lab. There were also plastic explosives buried.

The excavation of the site started on Thursday and continued until
midday. The teams resumed excavation on Friday and located the
munitions. Excavations were also launched in the Bala, Mamak, Emek,
BeÅ~_tepe, Saklıbahce and Ataturk Orman Ciftligi districts of the
city to locate more weapons possibly buried in these areas.

The operation started when Å~^ahin, whose phone conversations have
been tapped by police for at least two months, gave the order to
finalize plans to assassinate Armenian community members in the city
of Sivas. Twelve others were detained in Sivas during Wednesday’s
operation. Police also found shocking evidence that the group was
plotting to kill prominent figures including Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, Former Chief of General Staff YaÅ~_ar Buykanıt,
Police Department Intelligence Unit Chief Ramazan Akyurek, journalist
Fehmi Koru, author Orhan Pamuk and some politicians including members
of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP).

Gladio weapons fields

The fields brought to mind a great number of NATO-made arms depots
found buried underground during an investigation started by Italian
prosecutor Felice Casson, who discovered the existence of Operation
Gladio, a NATO stay-behind paramilitary force left over from the Cold
War. In a panel he joined in Ä°stanbul last April, Casson said these
weapons were found buried in cemeteries, under churches and even in
caves. Ergenekon is also thought to be a remnant from the original
Turkish Gladio, which was founded against a possible Soviet invasion
during the Cold War, but later turned into an organization trying to
cut off Turkey’s ties with the West. The retired generals arrested
in the Ergenekon investigation seem to have an anti-EU, anti-NATO
stance favoring a closer relationship between Turkey and Russia and
Eurasian nations.

Analysts said on Friday that the buried weapons might shed light on
a number of murders committed in the GölbaÅ~_ı area prior to the
Susurluk investigation of 1996, which started when a former police
chief, a southeastern tribal leader whose men were armed by the state
to fight separatist violence and an internationally wanted mafia boss
were involved in an accident near the small township of Susurluk while
riding in the same car. The police chief and the mafia boss as well
as his girlfriend, a former model, were killed in the accident. No
serious arrests followed from the ensuing investigation, which had
exposed, for the first time in modern Turkish history, a gang with
links to the state.

Some of the most significant unresolved murders were the assassination
of Yusuf Ekinci, a lawyer of Kurdish origin, and the murder of retired
Maj. Cem Ersever and his girlfriend. Investigators are examining
possible links between the GölbaÅ~_ı weapons and unresolved murders
in the area in the ’90s.

Ergenekon suspects on the run

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Mustafa Dönmez, an Ergenekon suspect in whose
houses in Sakarya and Ankara were found to contain dozens of bullets,
hand grenades and weapons, is now reported to be a fugitive. On
Wednesday Dönmez, who promised the police who called him on his cell
phone to inform him that an arrest warrant had been issued for him
that he would go to a police station "right away", disappeared shortly
after the phone call. The police claim they arrived on Wednesday at
the Adapazarı Central Command to capture Dönmez, but gendarmerie
officers who said the area fell under gendarmerie jurisdiction said
they would find Dönmez. Later, the gendarmerie told that police they
had been unable to find Dönmez and that they believed he had escaped.

Twenty-two hand grenades, five revolvers and a Kalashnikovs as well
as 8,300 bullets were found in a house belonging to the lieutenant
colonel in Sakarya. The search in another house belonging to Dönmez
in Ankara revealed three revolvers, 2 Kalashnikov rifles and a pair
of night-vision binoculars.

Thirty-seven in total were detained in the last wave of Ergenekon
detentions on Wednesday, including six army members who are currently
on duty as well as seven retired generals. In addition to Dönmez,
Bedrettin Dalan, a former mayor of the city of Ä°stanbul, was also
being searched by the police on Wednesday, but it soon turned out that
he was in the US. However, some newspapers claimed on Friday was Dalan
had evaded to the US after being tipped off on the Ergenekon operation.

Political clashes over Ergenekon

On Thursday, one day after the high-profile detentions, the traffic
in Ankara between institutions was intense. Chief of General Staff
Gen. Ä°lker BaÅ~_bug visited both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and President Abdullah Gul, with no statement on the content of the
talks but stating that they were indeed about the recent detentions
in which some retired generals and current officers were taken into
custody. Newspapers wrote yesterday that BaÅ~_bug was seeking special
treatment for military members. According to sources which spoke to
various newspapers, BaÅ~_bug demanded that military members should be
invited to the prosecutor’s office instead of being taken into custody.

Sources also say that BaÅ~_bug demanded that senior generals
HurÅ~_it Tolon and Å~^ener Eruygur, arrested last year as part of
the investigation, be released pending trial.

BaÅ~_bug’s visit on Thursday came after a 6-hour meeting of the
Force Commanders on Wednesday evening, convened immediately after
the detentions.

Accusations disrespectful to judiciary, says Å~^ahin

Also yesterday, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Å~^ahin responded to
allegations from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) that
the Ergenekon investigation had turned into a witch-hunt against the
government’s opponents. CHP leader Deniz Baykal claimed the operation
was a revenge against the secular Republic and its supporters. Å~^ahin
said, "Showing our prosecutors and judges because of their judicial
activities to be "settling accounts with the Republic," is the highest
form of disrespect that can be shown the judicial institution." Å~^ahin
called on all segments to show the utmost effort not to cast doubt
upon the judiciary.

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