TURKISH POLICE DETAIN 30 IN EXPLOSIVES CACHE PROBE
by Daren Butler
Reuters
Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:02pm
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police have detained 30 people,
including former military personnel and lawyers, in connection with an
investigation into a cache of explosives seized last year, Istanbul’s
governor said on Tuesday.
Eight months ago, police discovered 27 hand grenades, TNT blocks and
fuses during an operation in an Istanbul shanty town.
"Within Istanbul and beyond, a total of 30 people are in custody,"
the state-run Anatolian news agency quoted Governor Muammer Guler
as saying.
Turkish media have linked the find to the country’s shadowy "deep
state", code for hardline nationalists in the security forces prepared
to subvert the law for political ends.
CNN Turk said on its Web site a retired brigadier-general and colonel
were among those detained on the instructions of a public prosecutor
in Istanbul.
It said those detained included well-known nationalist lawyer
Kemal Kerincsiz, who came to prominence over his support for free
speech-related prosecutions, such as that against Nobel prize-winning
novelist Orhan Pamuk.
Kerincsiz was representing a retired army captain, who was one of 13
people previously remanded in custody in connection with the probe.
A second lawyer detained, Fuat Turgut, represents a man accused of
inciting the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who
was gunned down outside his office a year ago, the Anatolian news
agency said.