Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 11 2008
Ergenekon behind bloody May Day, evidence suggests
Evidence submitted to a court last month as part of the indictment
against Ergenekon, a shady network being accused of having plotted to
overthrow the government, suggests that the network was behind an
incident on May 1, 1977, when unknown perpetrators opened fire from a
hotel on a crowd gathered in Taksim Square for May Day celebrations,
killing 36.
The indictment includes a transcript of a radio conversation on May 1,
1977, found in the archives of the Workers’ Party (Ä°P) — whose
leader, DoÄ?u Perinçek, is under arrest on charges of
Ergenekon membership — during raids on the IP headquarters. Six
individuals participated in the conversation. The transcript shows
that one of the speakers was in the home of trade union leader Kemal
Türkler, who was assassinated by ultranationalists in July
1980. Another person was in Taksim Square marching with the
workers. Although the transcripts of the two-hour conversation are
from the morning hours and thus don’t reveal much about the evening
hours when the shootings began, the conversation is quite
revealing. Those involved in the conversation were located at
different points of Taksim Square and gave detailed descriptions of
what was going on in their area.
The transcripts are consistent with other transcripts found from the
same day that were made public for the first time in 1986.
The indictment also includes transcripts of phone conversations
between Veli Küçük, a retired general currently
under arrest as one of the suspected leaders of Ergenekon, and
journalist Güler Kömürcü, who was first
detained then released under the Ergenekon investigation. Much of the
evidence in the indictment comes from phone conversations between the
suspects, who were monitored by police for about a year from the time
the investigation first began in the summer of 2007.
In the phone conversation between Küçük and
Kömürcü, Küçük details his
plans to bring about a mini-coup within the opposition Nationalist
Movement Party (MHP), which is currently the third- largest party in
Parliament, against its current leader Devlet Bahçeli and bring
neo-nationalist academic Ã`mit Ã-zdaÄ? to
power. Ã-zdaÄ? had already attempted to challenge
Bahçeli’s leadership in the MHP congress the year before, but
his candidacy for leadership was blocked at the last minute by the
Bahçeli administration. However, Ã-zdaÄ? had little
chance of being elected MHP leader, according to analysts.
During the phone conversation with Kömürcü,
KÃ& #xBC;çük said he would toss Bahçeli, whom he
refers to using a word that can roughly be translated as `untamed,’
out of the fifth floor window. Küçük noted in the
same conversation that Bahçeli supported the election of
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) candidate Abdullah Gül
to the presidency in return for the government covering up corruption
allegations against former MHP Minister Koray Aydın. `There was
nothing that he did not steal during his ministry,’ says
Küçük of Aydın in the phone conversation
with Kömürcü.
Backgro und of Ergenekon probe
The existence of Ergenekon, a behind-the-scenes network attempting to
use social and psychological engineering to shape the country in
accordance with its own ultranationalist ideology, has long been
suspected, but the current investigation into the group began only in
2007, when a house in Ä°stanbul’s Ã`mraniye district that was
being used as an arms depot was discovered by police. The
investigation was expanded to reveal elements of what in Turkey is
called the deep state, finally proving the existence of the network,
which is currently being accused of trying to incite chaos and
disorder in order to trigger a coup against the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party) government. The indictment, made public
last month, indicates that Ergenekon was behind a series of political
assassinations over the past two decades. The group is also suspected
of being behind the murder of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian
journalist killed by a teenager in 2007.
Eighty-six suspects, 47 of whom are currently under arrest, are
accused of having suspicious links to the gang. Suspects will start
appearing before the court on Oct. 20 and will face accusations that
include `membership in an armed terrorist group,’ `attempting to bring
down the government,’ `inciting people to rebel against the Republic
of Turkey’ and other similar crimes.
11 August 2008, Monday
TODAY’S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL