NEO-NATIONALIST PARTY LEADER PERINCEK ARRESTED
Today’s Zaman
March 25 2008
Turkey
A Turkish court on Monday filed charges against the leader of a small
leftist, neo-nationalistic political party in a probe into a network
of extreme nationalists who allegedly want to topple the governing
Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
The court in Istanbul charged Doðu Perincek with "being a senior member
of a terrorist organization and obtaining and possessing classified
documents." Perincek is the leader of the Workers’ Party (ÝP), which
won a tiny fraction of the vote in general elections last summer. In
2007, a Swiss court convicted Perincek of racism for denying that
the mass killing of Armenians in the early 20th century was genocide.
Perincek was among several alleged suspects detained Friday by
police for interrogation. The court also ordered a former university
president, Kemal Alemdaroðlu, not to leave the country and to check
in with his local police station every 15 days. Ýlhan Selcuk of the
secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper, a fierce critic of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoðan’s government, was also taken into custody on
Friday. The arrests of Alemdaroðlu and Perincek came only a day after
the 83-year-old journalist was released.
The suspects are thought to be linked to a criminal gang called
Ergenekon with alleged links to power centers in the bureaucracy and
the military. The ongoing investigation previously uncovered evidence
showing that the gang was attempting to prepare the way for a coup
d’etat in Turkey in 2009. Ergenekon is suspected of links to groups
hidden within the state. These groups are commonly referred to as
Turkey’s deep state, a phenomenon in which individuals and groups
occupying various state positions take justice into their own hands
to shape Turkey in accordance with their political convictions.
On Monday, Perincek was sent to Bayrampaþa Prison after an arrest
warrant was issued by the Ýstanbul court. A group of ÝP supporters
gathered in front of the courthouse to protest the decision.
Alemdaroðlu spoke to press members after he left the courthouse,
suggesting that the accusation of membership in the neo-nationalist
Ergenekon was brought against him and other secularist opponents of
the AK Party because of pressure from the government on the judiciary.
Plans for attack on Supreme Court of Appeals
A CD found in the headquarters of the ÝP during the Ergenekon
investigation revealed the gang’s plans to stage an attack on the
Supreme Court of Appeals, the Taraf daily reported in its headline
story on Monday. A detailed map of the high court is shown on the CD,
clearly noting all the points that provide fast and easy access to the
outside of the building. The most detailed mapping in the plan was
done for building A, which is where Supreme Court of Appeals’ Chief
Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcýnkaya’s chambers are located. A copy of an
indictment file against the AK Party for its closure, prepared by none
other than Yalcýnkaya, was also found on a computer inside the ÝP,
supporting claims in the media that the closure case against the AK
Party was in retaliation to the crackdown on Ergenekon. The indictment
had been saved on the computer two days before the case was filed.
Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, in response to a question on the
investigation, denied claims that the prosecutor on the Ergenekon
case was being pressured by the government to harass secularists. "I
call on everyone to act with common sense and calmness. Everything
has a rule of conduct in Turkey; Turkey is a state of law. I hope
that the recent events will actually contribute to our process of
democratic improvement."
Meanwhile, in a written statement released yesterday, Ýstanbul Chief
Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin said, "The operations and procedures
being carried out under the investigation named Ergenekon have no
ties to any other cases that are currently in the public spotlight."
He said "a significant majority" of the news stories, commentaries
and evaluations that appeared in the press regarding the Friday raids
in which 14 people were detained did not reflect the truth.
Engin noted that the investigation was confidential, saying that
currently there is a ban on publishing news about the judicial process
on Ergenekon. He stated that there were currently three prosecutors
working on the case.
"The Ergenekon investigation started in June of 2007 and none of the
operations carried out under the scope of this investigation, including
the arrests made on March 21, 2008, have anything to do with any of the
other cases that are currently in the public spotlight," stated Engin.
"Independent organs of the judiciary are carrying out their duties
only using their authority based on law and it is impossible that
they are acting with ulterior motives or are being influenced by an
individual, group or agency," Engin said.
"However, certain news stories and commentaries in the press that do
not reflect the reality of the situation are making it more difficult
to conduct the investigation in the best manner," he noted.
Engin also said the Ergenekon investigation was nearing its end. He
noted that the judiciary process for those currently under arrest
would be completed within a month.
Head of the staunchly secularist Republican People’s Party’s (CHP)
parliamentary group Kemal Anadol, during a Friday press conference he
held at Parliament, demanded from the prime minister that the sources
of some members of the media who apparently know the details of the
Ergenekon interrogation should be revealed. Without directly citing
names, he recalled that Yeni Þafak writer Fehmi Koru had suggested
that Cumhuriyet’s Selcuk would be taken into custody for being part of
the criminal organization before that actually happened. He said he
suspected that some of the press had access to the documents of the
investigation — which have been classified as strictly confidential
from day one — at the police department.
In January 39 people were arrested as part of an investigation
following up on a police raid in June 2007 on a house being used as
an arms depot in Ýstanbul. Those arrested included retired Gen. Veli
Kucuk — also the alleged founder of an illegal intelligence unit in
the gendarmerie, the existence of which is denied by officials —
controversial ultranationalist lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, who filed
countless suits against Turkish writers and intellectuals who
were at odds with Turkey’s official policies, retired Col. Fikret
Karadað, Sevgi Erenerol, the press spokesperson for the so-called
"Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate," and Sami Hoþtan, a key figure in an
investigation launched after a car accident in 1996 near the small
town of Susurluk uncovered links between a police chief, a convicted
ultranationalist fugitive and a member of Parliament. Ali Yasak,
a well-known gangster linked to figures in the Susurluk incident,
was also detained in the operation.
The group is also suspected of involvement in the murder of journalist
Hrant Dink in January of last year, a shooting at the Council of State
in 2006 that left a senior judge dead, a hand grenade attack on the
Cumhuriyet daily’s Ýstanbul office and recent non-fatal attacks on two
priests. The number of people in custody on suspicion of having links
to the gang is said to have surpassed 50 with the recent detentions,
sources say.
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