Ergenekon suspects to stand trial in Turkey

29/07/2008

Shocking allegations in a government-backed probe have a group of retired army officers, mafia figures, academics, politicians and journalists facing charges of plotting numerous assassinations and bombings. An Istanbul court will hear the case in October.

By Ayhan Simsek for Southeast European Times -- 29/07/08

Retired Brigadier General Veli Kucuk faces charges of ordering various assassinations. [AFP]

Following a 13-month-long investigation, prosecutors on Friday (July 25th) released the 2,455-page-long Ergenekon indictment. The 13th branch of the Istanbul Court for Serious Crimes agreed to hear the case. Due to the large volume of accusations, the trial will start in October. Observers expect it to continue for months.

The indictment lists charges against 86 suspects, including retired army officers, Mafiosi, academics and politicians. Writers and journalists, including strong critics of the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), also face charges. The indictment briefly refers to 20 other suspects detained in early July, including retired four-star generals Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur. Observers expect another indictment of the generals for allegedly plotting to overthrow the AKP government.

The suspects allegedly founded a "terrorist organisation" whose prime aim was to become Turkey's "deep state". Prosecutors have not identified their alleged mastermind, but the group's suspected number two, retired Brigadier General Veli Kucuk, faces charges of ordering various assassinations and assaults -- including last year's Council of State shooting and a hand grenade attack at the secular daily Cumhuriyet's Istanbul headquarters.

According to prosecutors, some unsolved murders in the last decade have links to Kucuk and Ergenekon. According to the indictment, they include the murders of some pro-Kurdish activists, writer Necip Hablemitoglu in 2002, businessman Ozdemir Sabanci in 1995 and former gendarmerie General Esref Biltis in 1993.

Group members allegedly discussed assassinating Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Chief of General Staff Yasar Buyukanit and Turkish novelist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, according to the indictment. The alleged goal was to foment chaos and spur a military ouster of the AKP government.

The Ergenekon group allegedly had contacts with other terrorist groups, such as the Marxist-Leninist PKK and the Islamist Turkish Hizbullah.

Prosecutors claim that the group had, besides an operational unit for veterans of the military, other units that aimed to control NGOs, media and bureaucracy.

Daily Milliyet columnist Hasan Cemal said the trial would be a turning point for democracy and the rule of law. "I don't know what will be at the end of this trial. But filing this suit is, in itself, an important turning point," he wrote in his column.

Haluk Sahin, of Radikal, though, criticised misinformation in the media. He said that, while the indictment has serious evidence on criminal activities, it also includes vague and inconsistent accusations.

"The court now must distinguish between members of a terrorist organisation, if such a thing exists, and those opposition writers and thinkers," Sahin said.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com