DEFENSE ARGUMENTS COLLAPSE AS ERGENEKON PROBE DEEPENS

Today’s Zaman
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Jan 27 2009
Turkey

Photo: Arms caches, bombs, long-range rifles and explosives were
unearthed from underground and these findings refuted the

Some segments of society have criticized and even shown strong
opposition to an ongoing investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine
terrorist organization charged with attempting to overthrow the
government, but as the investigation deepens, their arguments in
defense of the suspects have fallen apart in light of a growing
body of new evidence confirming the prosecution’s claims about the
terrorist network.

The first indictment against 86 of the suspects claims that the
Ergenekon network is behind a series of political assassinations over
the past two decades. The victims include a 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;
secularist academic Necip Hablemitoglu, who was also believed to have
been killed by Islamic extremists, in 2002; and a 2006 attack on the
Council of State that left a senior judge dead.

Alparslan Arslan, found guilty of the Council of State killing,
said he attacked the court in protest of an anti-headscarf ruling it
had made. But the indictment contains evidence that he was connected
with Ergenekon and that his family received large sums of money from
unidentified sources after the shooting.

The indictment also says Veli Kucuk, believed to be one of the leading
members of the network, had threatened Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian
journalist slain by a teenager in 2007, before his murder — a sign
that Ergenekon could be behind that murder as well.

The Ergenekon indictment accuses a total of 86 suspects, 41 of whom are
currently in custody, of links with the gang. Suspects began appearing
in court on Oct. 20 of last year and face accusations that include
"membership in an armed terrorist group," "attempting to destroy the
government," "inciting people to rebel against the Republic of Turkey"
and other similar crimes.

Despite these serious accusations backed by strong evidence, some
segments, particularly neo-nationalist groups and the Republican
People’s Party (CHP), have said the investigation was part of a
conspiracy against the opposition. Some have even insisted that there
is no such thing as Ergenekon.

But that now seems to be changing, as the undeniable reality and the
gigantic extent of the organization is revealed with every new wave
of detentions and raids in the investigation.

Every new piece of evidence has refuted another argument by the
organization’s defenders on the public stage. Every bomb, weapon or
item of munitions shows all the more clearly the extent of the danger
posed by Ergenekon to civilian democratic life in Turkey. Below is a
list of arguments in defense of Ergenekon, with each item accompanied
with a fact established during the investigation that refutes the
argument.

Argument No. 1: There is no organization: Initially, opponents of
Ergenekon were asserting that a widely organized network did not
exist but that the case was actually a simple crime gang case.

First, hand grenades and assassination weapons as well as blocks of
explosives found in houses of various suspects in Umraniye, EskiÅ~_ehir
and Beykoz, Ä°stanbul, showed that the extent of the organization
was much wider than the probe’s opponents would like to have others
believe. In one of the latest operations into Ergenekon on Jan. 7,
22 hand grenades, five handguns and one Kalashnikov were found in
the house of Lt. Col. Mustafa Dönmez, also now under arrest as a
suspect. Following the discovery of weapons in Dönmez’s house,
police teams excavated munitions’ caches — with even anti-tank
weapons in the artillery — from underground in Ankara’s GölbaÅ~_ı
and Yenikent districts. The excavations were based on maps and
other documents found in various suspects’ homes on Jan. 7. Today,
the existence of Ergenekon is something undeniable. The discussion
is now on its structure, vastness and purposes.

Argument No. 2: It is an operation against the Turkish Armed
Forces: First, noncommissioned officer Oktay Yıldırım, retired
Capt. Muzaffer Tekin and retired Major Zekeriya Ozturk were detained,
followed in the next wave with the detention of retired Gen. Veli
Kucuk and retired Col. Fikri Karadag. Some segments argued that
the prosecution was waging a smear campaign against the Turkish
Armed Forces (TSK); however, this claim, too, was refuted with the
detention of various members of the police force, including former
police chief Adil Serdar Sacan, former deputy chairman of the Special
Operations Unit Ä°brahim Å~^ahin and 10 police officers from the
Special Operations Unit in the raid on Jan. 7.

Argument No. 3: There are no operations in the East and Southeast:
The probe’s opponents claim that the investigation would be restricted
to the bigger cities of Ä°stanbul and Ankara. But as the operations
expanded, nearly 20 people were arrested in Sivas. A death squad of
the group was also captured. There were also operations and arrests
in Mugla, Hakkari and Van.

Argument No. 4: The case is politically motivated: One of the
key allegations the probe’s opponents have put forth has been the
assertion that the case is a political move to crush the opponents of
the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party); however, the most
recent developments in the case, including the discovery of various
arms caches belonging to the group, have refuted this claim. Among
political parties, only the CHP says the case is politically
motivated. Ergenekon’s primary purpose was to prepare the country for
a coup d’etat, and it is only natural that the government’s opponents
would be among their members. Even the fact that an instructor working
at a Sivas university was detained in the investigation is enough by
itself to refute the thesis that the case is political. Why would the
AK Party want to silence an obscure instructor in an Anatolian city?

Argument No. 5: There won’t be a new wave of arrests: The same segments
claimed that when the chief of general staff visited the prime minister
and the president on Jan. 8, there would be no more operations. But
there was a new wave of detentions just two days after the meetings,
effectively sending one more claim to the trash can.

Argument No. 6: The prosecutor is making this personal: Prosecutor
Zekeriya Oz has been in the spotlight more than anybody else during the
investigation. Segments trying to water down the case have consistently
tried to turn him into a target. There were false stories about him
in the printed press. Finally, it was claimed that the prosecutor was
turning the case into a personal issue; however, this argument has also
been repudiated because it is not Oz but the Ä°stanbul Prosecutor’s
Office that is conducting the investigation. The statement about the
latest operation was made personally by Turan Colakkadı, the deputy
chief prosecutor. Colakkadı emphasized that the raids were conducted
after a search warrant was issued by independent courts in response
to a joint demand from four prosecutors.

Argument No. 7: How can you stage a coup with a few guns?: When bombs,
long-range rifles and explosives were discovered in houses related to
Ergenekon suspects earlier in the investigation, opponents claimed that
"you couldn’t overthrow a government with a few guns." The Cumhuriyet
daily even published the headline, "A coup with a hunters’ rifle." But
the discoveries of arms caches in the last two operations refuted this
argument, as there were anti-tank weapons unearthed from underground;
however, the argument actually never held as the organization’s
purpose was not to takeover the country, but to create chaos in the
country to trigger a coup d’etat. Journalist Hrant Dink was killed by
a simple revolver, not a tank, but his death caused intense protests,
demonstrations and tension. The Council of State shooting in 2006 was
also staged with a Glock weapon. In the murders of three Christians
in Malatya, a knife was the only weapon used.

These three cases are suspected to be related to Ergenekon, and they
all caused much tension in the country.

Argument No. 8: The operations are purposefully done in early morning
hours: Another criticism was that most of the raids into suspect
homes before detentions have so far been organized in the very early
morning hours; however, time showed that the prosecution never asked
for a certain raid time. In the last two operations, a death squad
was captured, apparently ready to assassinate leaders of the Alevi
and Armenian communities. The opponents should ask themselves what
might have happened if the prosecution had acted later.

Argument No. 9: Law is being trampled underfoot: Ä°stanbul Deputy
Chief Prosecutor Turan Colakkadı explained that every search warrant
was issued by independent courts and that none of the prosecutors
investigating the case acted individually.

Argument No. 10: There are human rights violations: None of the
suspects has complained of maltreatment or rights’ violations. To
the contrary, every suspect who was released has praised the police
and the prosecutor for their politeness.

–Boundary_(ID_i5SmjVl1hBLTLSP1pAbmeQ )–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress