EXCAVATIONS DIG DEEPER INTO ERGENEKON STRUCTURE

Today’s Zaman
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Jan 14 2009
Turkey

Excavations into sites that are potentially home to Ergenekon arms
caches continued yesterday.

Excavations into sites that are potentially home to arms caches of
Ergenekon, a clandestine organization attempting to create chaos and
undermine stability in order to trigger a coup d’état, continued
yesterday, indicating that the investigation is going to deepen,
with prosecutors reaching more central branches of the organization.

The police yesterday carried out a series of digs in wasteland around
the capital in a search for weapons linked to the Ergenekon terrorist
organization. The excavations are a continuation of earlier digs based
on new documents obtained during police raids on the houses and offices
of arrestees last week. Police on Monday discovered several explosives
and bullets in Ankara in excavations carried out under the auspices
of the Ergenekon investigation. They unearthed 30 hand grenades,
nine smoke bombs and hundreds of G-3 rifle bullets in the garden of
a deserted house in Sincan, an Ankara suburb. The hidden weapons not
only give clues to the organization’s planned attacks in the future,
but also may shed light on past crimes believed to be committed by
the organization.

Yesterday’s excavations started out early in the morning in Yenikent,
an area not far from the site of the cache found in Monday’s digs. The
excavation was briefly halted, as the area is a historical site,
a status given to it only a week ago, but then was restarted when
Turkey’s Museums and Monuments Directorate gave it the green
light. Only the Anatolia news agency and the Turkish Radio and
Television Corporation (TRT) can record footage at the site.

Meanwhile, an ancient jug was found during yesterday’s
excavation. Archeologists are yet to examine the artifact, officials
said.

Lieutenant colonel investigated

The military started an investigation yesterday into Lt. Col. Mustafa
Dönmez, an Ergenekon suspect whose houses in Sakarya and Ankara
were found in last week’s operations to contain dozens of bullets,
hand grenades and weapons. Dönmez, who disappeared last week, turned
himself into the police yesterday.

"The legal investigation regarding the suspect and the seized materials
is continuing in all dimensions," a statement from the military said
on the inquiry into the army officer.

A new wave of detentions last week in the Ergenekon investigation
revealed that the group was planning to assassinate Alevi and Armenian
community leaders, the prime minister and members of the Supreme
Court of Appeals, acts that would have dragged Turkey into chaos if
they had been carried out.

Thirty-seven individuals were detained last week in simultaneous
police operations staged in six cities as part of the ongoing
investigation. The new detainees include military officers, a
controversial academic with a background of left-wing political
activism, the former deputy head of the Police Special Operations Unit,
seven retired generals and the former head of the Higher Education
Board (YOK). The YOK chairman was released after investigation, but
four military officers, the controversial academic and the former
police deputy chief were arrested. Two senior generals were released
pending trial.

Information on weapons in GölbaÅ~_ı

The prosecutors in the case indicated that the police had evidence that
Ergenekon was plotting to kill prominent Alevi community leaders such
as Ali Balkız and Kazım Genc, as well as Sivas Armenian Community
President Minas Durmaz Guler along with a number of journalists.

Prior to Monday, two separate weapons depots were found during last
week’s operations. On Friday the police discovered a weapons cache
buried in a forest in Ankara’s GölbaÅ~_ı district through a map found
in the home of one of the newest suspects. Searches in five other areas
were also launched based on evidence seized by police during sweeps
of homes and offices of suspects. These searches yielded no results.

In GölbaÅ~_ı, officers discovered 30 hand grenades, three
flame-throwers, many plastic explosives, ammunitions for Uzi
machine guns and other ammunition buried close to a road near the
capital, officials said. Separately, a weapons cache was found in
Lt. Col. Dönmez’s Ä°stanbul house.

Weapons found as part of the probe last Friday buried underground in
Ankara’s GölbaÅ~_ı district seem to match assassination plans found
in the home of Ergenekon suspect and former Special Operations Unit
Deputy Chief Ä°brahim Å~^ahin.

Meanwhile the National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) yesterday
confirmed the newspaper reports that Å~^ahin, in his initial testimony
to judges at the 13th High Criminal Court on Sunday, said he had
informed MÄ°T about intelligence prior to an Oct. 3 outlawed Kurdistan
Worker’s Party (PKK) attack on a military outpost that left 17 soldiers
dead. MÄ°T said the agency has no institutional contact with Å~^ahin,
but said Å~^ahin’s intelligence had been carried to the agency through
"a social interaction."

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