7 DETAINED AS PART OF INVESTIGATION INTO TSK COVERT MEETING SPOTS

Today’s Zaman
Feb 12 2009
Turkey

Twelve people, including five military officers, were detained on
Tuesday as part of an investigation launched by the Air Forces Command
into the secret meeting places of a clandestine terrorist organization.

These covert meeting places, also known as Karargah houses, were used
by members of the Ergenekon terrorist group for discussing strategic
plans to manipulate the decisions of the Turkish Armed Forces
(TSK). Ergenekon is a clandestine criminal organization charged
with attempting to create chaos and undermine stability in Turkey
to trigger a coup. Eighty-six of its alleged members are in jail and
standing trial. Many other suspects are waiting to be indicted.

The existence of the Karargah houses was revealed as part of the
ongoing Ergenekon investigation. These places are believed to be
meeting spots for army generals plotting a coup as well as locations
for hiding hit men and ammunition.

The Air Forces Command launched an investigation into the Karargah
houses around two years ago. Seven people, five of whom were army
officers on active duty, were taken into custody on Tuesday for
suspected ties to these houses. The detentions came upon an order by
a military prosecutor, a move that seems to strengthen claims that
the military is determined to get rid of illegal formations within
its ranks.

Many retired and active military members, including high-ranking
generals and officers, have been detained and arrested as part of
the Ergenekon investigation.

Workers’ Party (Ä°P) Vice Chairman Mehmet Bedri Gultekin and
businessman Ä°brahim Arslan were also among those detained on
Tuesday. Ä°P Chairman Dogu Perincek and Secretary-General Nusret
Senem are currently in jail for their suspected involvement in
Ergenekon. Their party is known for its extreme nationalism despite
its left-wing roots. Documents seized during police raids on Ä°P
offices revealed close ties between the Ä°P and Ergenekon.

The names of officers detained on Tuesday have not been made
public. Rumors are circulating, however, that the number of detainees
may increase in the days ahead.

Meanwhile, the Ergenekon prosecutors have not been able to obtain
satisfactory answers from Ergenekon suspect Ä°brahim Å~^ahin, a
former deputy director of the National Police Department’s Special
Operations Unit, who was arrested last week on charges of having
established death squads with police force members to assassinate
prominent intellectuals, businessman and non-Muslim community leaders
in various cities across the country. The answers prosecutors have
gotten so far have led to even more questions.

In his testimony Å~^ahin said the squads he was forming inside
the police force, known as S-1 squads, were being created with the
knowledge of Chief of General Staff Gen. Ä°lker BaÅ~_bug. Å~^ahin
further claimed that the S-1 department was to be formed of 150 to 300
police officers and soldiers, under the orders of Brig. Gen. Metin
Gurak, head of the General Staff Communications Department. He also
said the highest-ranking generals in the army had contacted him about
the S-1 teams, but that their phone numbers never appeared on his
telephone’s caller ID screen. Although Å~^ahin gave detailed answers
to many questions, he left many others completely unanswered.

In his 107-page testimony taken by Prosecutor Zekeriya Oz, Å~^ahin
admitted having compiled the S-1 lists found in his home during police
raids last year. He claimed that Gen. Gurak personally ordered him to
set up a new team. "I made a list of people I knew who had fought in
counterterrorism campaigns. I was told that this issue was ordered
by the president and Interior Minister BeÅ~_ir Atalay. I knew they
had official contacts regarding this team," he testified. He also
claimed that he had regular meetings with gen. Gurak. "I always saw
Gurak PaÅ~_a regularly until I was taken here. They told me to prepare
things. I have compiled the lists in accordance with their orders."

Who is the ‘highest up’?

Å~^ahin did not give any response to a question about who he had
referred to as "the highest up" in a phone conversation he had with
Fatma Cengiz on Nov. 2, 2008. Cengiz was arrested as an Ergenekon
suspect in January. In the same conversation Å~^ahin and Cengiz talked
about an organization they called Sefir. In response to Oz’s question
about this organization, Å~^ahin also gave no answer.

In another phone conversation from Nov. 18, 2008, Å~^ahin told Oguzhan
Sagıroglu, another Ergenekon suspect, "We are responsible for inner
cleansing." In response to the prosecutor’s question, Å~^ahin said
he meant inner cleansing in northern Iraq.

Å~^ahin also told the prosecution that if he had not been detained
in the Ergenekon investigation, there would have been a military
ceremony for him at General Staff headquarters on Jan. 12, to mark
his new duty as head of the S-1 teams.

A document listing intellectuals and individuals of Armenian
background or found "dangerous to state security" had been found
both in the homes of both Å~^ahin and Cengiz. The document lists
the names of publisher Ragıp Zarakolu, Professor Halil Berktay,
historian Taner Akcam, politician Hikmet Cetin, former National
Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) Deputy Undersecretary Mehmet Eymur,
journalist and author Murat Belge, journalist Oral CalıÅ~_lar and
Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, Syriac Catholic Community leader
Yusuf Sag and former Vatican representative George Marovic. Å~^ahin
also refused to respond to questions about documents indicating that
he was gathering intelligence on individuals of Armenian, Alevi and
Kurdish origin. Other questions about Å~^ahin’s racist and violent
remarks about Kurds, Alevis and Armenians in letters, emails and
phone conversations went unanswered.

He also denied that a map found in his home that led the police to a
stockpile of munitions buried underground in an Ankara neighborhood
belonged to him.
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