TURKISH SUSPECTS CHARGED WITH PLANS AGAINST ARMENIAN, ALEVI LEADERS

Aug 6 2009
Turkey

The judges accepted a third Ergenekon case indictment submitted by
the case prosecutors, indicting 52 more people.

The judges hearing the trial of Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged
with plotting to overthrow the government, on Wednesday accepted a
third case indictment submitted by the case prosecutors, indicting
52 more people.

Suspects are charged with crimes that include plans to attack Turkey’s
Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II and a leader of the Alevi community,
Anatolian said.

Prosecutors charge the ultra-nationalist network planned assassinations
and bomb attacks to stir unrest to pave the way for a military
intervention.

"The indictment, which is composed of 1,454 pages, contains lawsuits
against 52 suspects, 37 of whom are still under arrest. The suspects
were arrested between Jan. 10, 2009 and April 17, 2009. Four of
those arrested suspects were later released and 11 of the suspects
were not arrested. The introduction section contains a summary of the
first phase of the Ergenekon investigation and the first indictment,
along with information on the activities planned and realized by the
organization, including its assassination plans and seized ammunition,"
Turkish media quoted of statement.

Among the suspects are retired generals, including the former chairman
of the National Security Council, a labour leader, university rectors
and the former head of the Higher Education Council, which regulates
universities, Anatolian said.

Turkish intellectuals say the Ergenekon trial is an effort to eradicate
shadowy forces that have undermined stability in the European Union
candidate nation.

The first hearing in the latest indictment is scheduled for
Sept. 7. The first trial began last year. Most of the defendants are
in police custody.

Council of State case

Prosecutors conducting the Ergenekon investigation have established
various links between the two cases. The most conspicuous ones are
the close relationship Council of State shooter Alparslan Arslan had
with some of the key suspects in the Ergenekon case.

Two of Ergenekon suspect, imcluding a leftist party leader Dogu
Perincek protested being tried with Arslan.

The armed attack by Alparslan Arslan against the Council of State
2. Department was on 17 May 2006. Alparslan Arslan first claimed he
staged the attack as a reaction to the rule on the "headscarf ban" by
the Council of State. But, Ergenekon indictment says that the attack
was performed by the instructions from Ergenekon terorist organization.

The prosecutors suspect that Muzaffer Tekin, a retired army captain
believed to be one of the higher-up leaders of Ergenekon, incited
Arslan to carry out the attack. Veli Kucuk, a retired general and
another key suspect in the Ergenekon investigation, was also implicated
in the top court shooting.

Dozens of documents, phone transcripts and photographs clearly indicate
that Arslan and some of the Ergenekon suspects were frequently in
contact with each other. When an arms cache inside a shanty house in
Istanbul’s Umraniye district was discovered in the summer of 2007 —
the discovery that would be the start of the Ergenekon probe — the
Council of State shooting was reinvestigated by prosecutors on the
Ergenekon case.