TURKS GRIPPED BY SHADOWY GROUP’S COUP TRIALS

National Public Radio (NPR)
February 16, 2009 Monday

STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I’m Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

Turkey is witnessing what may be the most important trial in the
country’s history. The subject is the nature of Turkey itself. That’s
because the trial is over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow a
democratically elected government. That conspiracy allegedly included
members of the military, and if it’s true, such a conspiracy would
be nothing the military hasn’t done before.

NPR’s Deborah Amos reports from Istanbul.

(Soundbite of whistle blowing)

DEBORAH AMOS: Thousands march through Istanbul each week to demonstrate
support for what Turks call the trial of the century.

(Soundbite of chanting)

Eighty-six defendants, so far, charged with belonging to a secret
terrorist organization. Those arrested include retired generals,
journalists and politicians. The indictment alleges a conspiracy to
bring down the ruling justice and development party, the AKP. In 2002,
the AKP won elections for the first time in a landmark vote. The AKP
is rooted in conservative Islam. The elections unsettled the country’s
secular elite, including the military.

The coup plot had a name, according to the indictment, with roots in
Turkish mythology that’s come to mean a secret organization within
the state.

Mr. MEHMET ALI BIRAND: Ergenekon. It’s a bit difficult to swallow,
but doesn’t matter. It’s like Ergenekon.

AMOS: That’s Mehmet Ali Birand, a television personality and a
newspaper columnist. He describes the alleged plot to murder members
of Turkey’s political and cultural elite, setting the stage for a
military take over.

Mr. BIRAND: I’m happy that Ergenekon is out of the closet. We knew
it but we couldn’t touch it. For the first time we are discussing
that the military’s involvement in the politics. We are discussing
that very much.

AMOS: There is history in this uniquely Turkish story. The country
has had three successful coups by a military that sees itself as the
protector of Turkey’s secular state, a role that now seems in question,
says Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University.

Professor HENRI BARKEY (Lehigh University, Pennsylvania): It has
diminished and tarnished the military, because so many of its former
generals are caught up in this thing. So in that sense it is quite
damning.

AMOS: I’m standing outside the courtroom where the Ergenekon trials
take place. The lawyers, and there are many lawyers, arrive by bus
from Istanbul. There are no cell phones or recording devices allowed
inside the courtroom. There are two security checks and they are very
heavy. I’m going inside to hear a case.

In the wood paneled courtroom, the judges hear the testimony of the
latest defendant – on this day, a computer programmer charged in the
plot. There are more than a dozen reporters in the courtroom.

Mr. COKSAL GOCHE(ph) (Television correspondent): My name is Coksal
Goche. I’m correspondent for Turkish television.

AMOS: Goche reports on an indictment so complex and confusing, some
defendants complain they don’t know what they’re charged with. But a
recent opinion poll showed a majority of Turks, 61 percent, believe
the coup attempt was real, says Goche.

Mr. GOCHE: Most of the Turkish people think that they are opposite
of democracy.

AMOS: The people who were in Ergenekon?

Mr. GOCHE: Yes. We must solve this problem.

(Soundbite of beep)

AMOS: In any conspiracy investigation there seems to be a newspaper
that digs deeper than the rest. Watergate had the Washington Post. In
Turkey it’s Taraf, a politically liberal newspaper with offices at
the top floor of a bookstore and an armed guard at the door.

Yasemin Congar is the lead reporter on Taraf’s investigative team.

Ms. YASEMIN CONGAR (Reporter, Taraf): We are a small newspaper. It’s
a newspaper that created a lot of noise for its size. Some of us have
received death threats.

AMOS: Have you personally gotten death threats?

Ms. CONGAR: In the past, yes.

AMOS: But in the past, says Congar, investigations into sensitive
subjects were blocked. For example, the murder of a Turkish-Armenian
journalist and the harsher aspects of the military campaign against
Kurdish separatists in the southeast. This is also part of Ergenekon
says Congar.

Ms. CONGAR: There is a lot of dirt, there are many corpses, there
are dead people, and now we’re digging it out, and we are finding
ammunition everywhere, like hand grenades and C-4 exploding devices,
you name it.

AMOS: The discovery of several arms dumps and the mounting evidence
has embarrassed the generals. High-ranking arrests have caused tension
between the government and the military. And lately, some Turkish
commentators complain that the trials have gone too far – an attempt by
the moderate Islamist ruling the country to discredit the secular army
and silence the secular political oppositions, says Mehmet Ali Birand.

Mr. MEHMET ALI BIRAND (Turkish television commentator): They are trying
to push the opposition to this government into a corner, saying that
– hey, be careful, you can be detained. So that’s bad. It’s getting
too far.

AMOS: So far one Turkish court agreed. A retired four-star general
was released last week after seven months in jail. The court ruled
there was not enough evidence to keep him locked up.

Deborah Amos, NPR News, Istanbul.