Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 11 2009
`My blood froze,’ says potential Ergenekon Terror victim
President of the Alevi BektaÅ?i Federation Ali Balkız,
plans of whose assassination were unearthed by a police raid into
suspects of the terrorist organization Ergenekon, a clandestine
network charged with plotting to overthrow the government, has stated
that his "blood froze" when he was shown the detailed documents seized
by the police.
In January a new wave of detentions 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 had they
been carried out.
The prosecutors, who made public the detention warrant, indicated that
the police, who had been monitoring the suspects’ phone conversations
for months, had found evidence that Ergenekon was engaged in
preparations for a number of assassinations. The group was plotting to
kill prominent Alevi community leaders such as Balkız and
Kazım Genç, as well as Sivas Armenian Community
President Minas Durmaz Güler and a number of journalists.
Balkız, who met with Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Ã-z two
weeks ago, spoke to a panel in the city of Alanya on Monday, saying he
was shown "a photograph of my house, a blueprint of it, the names of
nine people, one of whom would obtain explosives, and the bomb they
devised. It made me think of the killings of [UÄ?ur] Mumcu and
[Necip] HablemitoÄ?lu, also under shady circumstances."
Cumhuriyet daily columnist Mumcu, a leading figure in investigative
journalism, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb placed under his
car on Jan. 24, 1993. Historian Necip HablemitoÄ?lu was shot
dead in front of his house on Dec. 18, 2002. They were long believed
to have been assassinated by Islamic extremists, until documents
seized from various suspects suggested that Ergenekon was behind both
of their deaths.
Balkız said he was terrified when he was shown the "Ergenekon
documents" about his planned assassination. Saying that the group’s
plans to pit Alevi and Sunni groups against each other in society
would not work, Balkız added, "Turkey will not fall into that
trap one more time."
This is not the first time a potential victim or even a suspect has
said they were shocked and terrified to see documents proving the
atrocities committed and planned by the organization. Retired
Gen. Erdal Å?enel, who was briefly detained last month, said in
his police testimony that he was shocked by the scale of the Ergenekon
organization.
Å?enel said he discerned that Ergenekon was a terrorist
organization from the questions asked in his police interrogation on
Jan. 8.
Also in February Erhan Göksel, the head of the Verse Poll
Company who was also detained in the Ergenekon investigation but later
released, stated that "75 percent of the accusations against Ergenekon
are true."
Göksel said he had seen the prosecutors’ documents during his
brief detentions. He said most of the allegations are true.
11 March 2009, Wednesday
TODAY’S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL