28-03-2009, 04:48 AM
Ergenekon (organization)
![[Image: 180px-Milliyet_20_October_2008_%28Ergenekon%29.jpg]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a7/Milliyet_20_October_2008_%28Ergenekon%29.jpg/180px-Milliyet_20_October_2008_%28Ergenekon%29.jpg)
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"Ergenekon" is the name given to an alleged clandestine, secular ultra-nationalist[1] organization in Turkey with ties to members of the country's military and security forces.[2] The group is accused of terrorism in Turkey.[3]
Its agenda has variously been described as Eurasianist,[4][5][6] and isolationist.[7] The defendants portray themselves as defenders of secularism, and national sovereignty. According to the indictment, the group's claim to legitimacy is that it allegedly protects national interests, which the defendants believe are incompatible with the rule of the Justice and Development Party and are harmed by Turkey's alleged concessions to the West.[8][9] In Turkey, the extensions of the state—the establishment—that are considered responsible for this are referred to as the "deep state".[10] The existence of the "deep state" was affirmed in Turkish opinion after the Susurluk scandal in 1996.[11]
Alleged members have been indicted on charges of plotting to foment unrest, among other things by assassinating intellectuals, politicians, judges, military staff, and religious leaders, with the ultimate goal of toppling the pro-Western incumbent government[12][13][14] in a coup that was planned to take place in 2009.[15][16] This follows allegations published in Nokta that several abortive coups with the same intent were planned a few years ago. The proximate motive behind these false flag activities is said to be to discredit the incumbent Justice and Development Party and derail Turkey's accession process to the European Union.[17][18]
Ergenekon's modus operandi has been compared to Operation Gladio's Turkish branch, the Counter-Guerrilla. It has been said that the people who constitute the "deep state" are members of, or make use of, this covert organization, which was established at the beginning of the Cold War to contain communism.[19][20][21] Furthermore, Ergenekon is allegedly a derivative of the Counter-Guerrilla.
Over a hundred people, including several generals, party officials, and a former secretary general of the National Security Council, have been detained or questioned since July 2008.[11][22] Hearings began on 20 October 2008, and are expected to continue for over a year.[23]
Commentators in the Turkish press have called Ergenekon "the case of the century".[24]
What is Ergenekon?
An organization named "Ergenekon" has been talked about since the Susurluk scandal, which exposed a similar gang. However, it is said that Ergenekon has undergone serious changes since then. The first person to publicly talk about the organization was retired naval officer Erol Mütercimler, who said in 1997:[25][26]
“ It is above the General Staff, the MİT and the Prime Minister. There are generals, heads of police departments, and businessmen in this organization. ” “ Defining it as a gang is an oversimplification. What is a gang? It is the engagement of a number of people in illegal affairs. You can not define Ergenekon as a gang. It is part of a big organization. Alparslan Türkeş and [retired general] Turgut Sunalp were members of Ergenekon. ” “ As I have worked for the state for many years, I know that forming such an organization necessitates a big budget. It is not easy to establish such an organization as Ergenekon. First of all, it requires a great staff. It needs businessmen, and perhaps drug traffickers. ” Mütercimler said he heard of the original organization's existence from retired general Memduh Ünlütürk, who was involved in the anti-communist Ziverbey interrogations following the 1971 coup.[27] Major general Ünlütürk told Mütercimler that Ergenekon was founded with the support of the CIA and the Pentagon.[28] Mütercimler was detained during the Ergenekon investigation for questioning before being released.[25]
Mütercimler and others, however, draw a distinction between the Ergenekon of today and the original one, which they equate with the Counter-Guerrilla; Operation Gladio's Turkish branch.[5][29][30] Today's Ergenekon is said to be a "splinter" off the old one.[31][32] The person whose testimony contributed most to the indictment, Tuncay Güney, described Ergenekon as a junta related to the Turkish Resistance Organization (Turkish: Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı, TMT) operating in North Cyprus; the TMT was established by founding members of the Counter-Guerrilla.[33] Former North Cyprus President Rauf Denktaş denied any connection of the TMT to Ergenekon.[34]
Another position is that while some of the suspects may be guilty of something, there is no organization to which they are all party, and that the only thing they have in common is opposition to the AKP.[35] There are also allegations that Ergenekon's agenda is in line with the policies of the NSC, elaborated in the top-secret "Red Book" (the National Security Policy Document).[36]
Mütercimler's account was also cited in the first book on the subject, Can Dündar and Celal Kazdağlı's Ergenekon (1997). In an article for Milliyet, Dündar compares Ergenekon with the Susurluk gang, and the Counter-Guerrilla; two other clandestine groups.[5] He says that the Susurluk gang had more funding and that its investigation had more popular support. Dündar also says that Ergenekon differs from the Counter-Guerrilla in that the former leans towards Russia, while the latter leans towards the United States. Claims of Ergenekon's Eurasian affinity are supported by the statements of the movement's chief advocate, Aleksandr Dugin, who called Ergenekon a "pro-Russian group". He said that he knew almost all of the suspects, and praised them for rallying the right and the left (i.e., the opponents of the pro-Western incumbent party, AKP). A salient manifestation of these anti-AKP efforts are the Republic Protests of 2007, under the leadership of Şener Eruygur.[37] The coalition between the left and right (wherein the nominally leftist CHP gravitated to the MHP) was noted by certain observers in the Turkish press in advance of the investigation.[38]
The chairman of the Susurluk commission, Mehmet Elkatmış, said that the Susurluk and Ergenekon gangs are identical except in name. He said that the left is not supportive of the Ergenekon investigation because of revelations that many crimes formerly thought to have been carried out by religious fundamentalists are now claimed to be false flag operations.[39] A noted retired intelligence agent, Mahir Kaynak, says that on the contrary Ergenekon is the antithesis of Susurluk; the former is predominantly military, while the latter was a paramilitary gang that was erected in opposition to the military.[40] Şamil Tayyar of the newspaper Star, who has written books on Ergenekon, says that Ergenekon is not a continuation of Susurluk, but the 9 March junta of the 1971 coup.[41]
The former director of the İstanbul Police Department's Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Department (Turkish: Organize Suçlar Şubesi) said that today's Ergenekon is a military wing of the Susurluk gang.[42]
When the Russian newspaper Kommersant declared Dugin to be the brains behind Ergenekon,[4] Dugin responded that he had no part in illegal activities, but that he saw no crime in sharing their vision of Turkey's future—free from the influence of NATO and the United States.[43]
Perinçek had been participating in the conferences of Dugin's Eurasia Party since 1996 (before Dugin joined). Perinçek claims to be the ideologue of the party,[44] and to have influenced the Eurasia Party, rather than being under its influence.[45]
Structure
Based on documents prepared by one of the prosecutors, an article in Sabah says that the organization consists of six cells with the following personnel:[46]
Despite the seemingly high status of Veli Küçük in the organization—some have even called him the leader[49]—Şamil Tayyar of the Star daily says that Küçük is not "even among the top ten".[50] The identity of the "number one" member has been revealed by the MİT to the prosecutors, but will not be made public.[51] Some journalists have offered conflicting hints on who it might be, but do not openly name anyone due to a lack of concrete evidence. It is said that the top position is held for a six month term by an active army officer. By selecting active officers, the group maintains connections with the establishment.[52] Suspect-at-large Tuncay Güney says that the identity of the leader can be found by tracing the network's (as yet unknown) financier.[53]
Name
Two explanations have been put forth regarding the genesis of the organization's name, which is used by alleged members and mentioned in several of its documents.[54][55] The first is that the name derives from the Ergenekon myth; a place in Eurasia of mythological significance, esp. among nationalists (see Agartha).[56] Another hypothesis is that organization is named after retired colonel—and Veli Küçük's mentor—Necabettin Ergenekon.[57] Ergenekon distances himself from the group, saying that his name has been tarnished by association with "terrorists". Born in 1926, Erzurum as Necabettin Baltacı, he was suspected by later-assassinated state prosecutor Cevat Yurdakul as being behind a string of mysterious deaths in the 70s. Baltacı had his surname changed "some time in the '60s" to avoid confusion with another person by the same name, before retiring in 1982, says Zaman.[58][59]
Discovery
Although the investigation was officially launched in 2007, the existence of the organization was known beforehand. The files on Ergenekon were discovered after a spy called Tuncay Güney got detained in March 2001 for petty fraud. Some say the crime was a ploy to set the investigation in motion. A police search of his house turned up the six sacks of evidence on which the indictment is based.
One month later, a columnist on good terms with the government, Fehmi Koru, was the first to break the news,[60] under his usual pen name, Taha Kıvanç.[61] His article was based on a key Ergenekon report dated 29 October 1999 and titled "Ergenekon: Analysis, Structuring, Management, and Development Project".[62][63]
Tuncay Güney's testimony (2001)
Main article: Tuncay Güney
The person whose statements to the police in 2001 formed "the backbone of the indictment"[64] was a spy named Tuncay Güney, alias "İpek". Güney is believed to be subordinate to Mehmet Eymür, formerly of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT)'s Counterterrorism Department. Eymür was discharged and his department disbanded in 1997. Güney's relationship to the MİT has been a matter of confusion; his boss was once a MİT employee, while the MİT says Güney was not (specifically, he was not a "registered informant") and that the MİT considered him a suspicious person.[65][66][67][68]
He had allegedly been tasked with infiltrating the gendarmerie's intelligence agency, JITEM, and Ergenekon in 1992.[69] Güney was apprehended in 2001 for issuing fake licenses and plates for luxury cars. He is still sentenced in absentia for this offense.[70] No charges have been brought against him in the frame of the Ergenekon investigation, some say as a result of a bargain struck with the authorities.[71] However, he is currently under investigation,[72] and State Prosecutor Ziya Hurşit Karayurt has proposed that he be subpoenaed.[73] The court is deliberating whether to consolidate his earlier case with the Ergenekon one.[74] In addition, legal proceedings have been initiated to obtain his testimony from abroad using Interpol.[75] Prosecutor Öz has prepared a list of 37 questions for Güney, who says he will co-operate if the questioning is done by the Canadian police.[76]
Güney has been said to conflate fact and fiction,[77][78] casting doubt over the indictment, which names him a "fugitive suspect" (Turkish: firari şüpheli).[79] Güney is seen as such an important figure that rival press groups have exchanged columns accusing one another of attempting to influence public opinion by questioning his credibility.[80][81][82] It is alleged that one the parties, Aydın Doğan, was asked not to publish material about Ergenekon, by Veli Küçük through Doğu Perinçek.[83] In December 2008, Güney said that a Hürriyet reporter offered him a bribe not to talk about the newspaper, one of whose senior members is allegedly in Ergenekon.[84] Hürriyet denied the allegations.[85][86]
Engin Bağbars' testimony (2006)
The convicted leader of a twenty-person narcotics gang, Engin Bağbars, gave a 10.5 hour testimony to the police about Ergenekon on 27 September 2006. He met Ergenekon suspect Muzaffer Tekin in 2005 through a person named Gökhan Başoğlu, who told him that the gang had infiltrated the intelligence agency and the military, and that they had their sights on heading the police force. Başoğlu also proposed to induct Bağbars into the Kuvayı Milliye Derneği. Bağbars says he was being groomed to carry out a disruptive act similar to Hrant Dink's assassination; he was given a Kalashnikov.[87]
Bağbars claims credit for uncovering Ergenekon. Intelligence analysts set to work after his testimony. Other sources say that this occurred on 24 May, at the Tekirdağ State Prosecutor's office.[88] Bağbars was present as a witness in the Ergenekon trial.
Grenades in Ümraniye (2007)
The investigation officially began after the Trabzon Gendarmerie Headquarters' tip-off line received an anonymous call on 12 June 2007 saying that grenades and C-4 explosives were to be found at Güngör Sokak № 2, Çakmak Mahallesi, Ümraniye (![[Image: 18px-Erioll_world.svg.png]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Erioll_world.svg/18px-Erioll_world.svg.png)
41°1′13.69″N 29°7′10.21″E / 41.0204694°N 29.1195028°E / 41.0204694; 29.1195028 (Site of the arms cache that started the Ergenekon investigation)Coordinates: 41°1′13.69″N 29°7′10.21″E / 41.0204694°N 29.1195028°E / 41.0204694; 29.1195028 (Site of the arms cache that started the Ergenekon investigation)). A search warrant was immediately obtained from the Ümraniye 2. Peace Penal Court. 27 hand grenades (but no C-4) were found in a nylon-covered wooden chest on the roof of a slum at the stated address. According to the indictment, the caller was Şevki Yiğit, the father of the building's tenant, Ali Yiğit. Şevki found the bomb-filled chest by accident and asked his his son about them. Ali then asked the owner of the house, his uncle Mehmet Demirtaş about it. According to Yiğit, Demirtaş responded that there was a chest with military equipment on the roof belonging to ÖHD NCO Oktay Yıldırım, and instructed him to keep quiet about it. Ali Yiğit added that retired captain Muzaffer Tekin and retired NCO Mahmut Öztürk, both of the special forces, once stopped by his grocery store (adjacent to the slum, and owned by Demirtaş) in a black Mercedes while Yıldırım was present, that Yıldırım left only to return with Öztürk 15-20 minutes later in a yellow Opel Corsa, and that his father found the bombs 3-4 months later. Yiğit said that his father, who lives in Trabzon, might have placed the call since he was not on good terms with Demirtaş.[89][90]
The grenades were found to bear the same serial number as those used in 14 incidents throughout the country.[91][92][93] They were disposed of two weeks after their discovery on account of their not being preservable.[94]
A search of Yıldırım's office in Reina[95] and Muzaffer Tekin's house revealed a secret document titled "Ergenekon Lobi" about the group's plans. The information in the documents led the authorities to revisit the Tuncay Güney case.
Yıldırım later denied the charges, though his fingerprints were found on the chest. During his trial, he referred to Demirtaş as a former subordinate soldier of his, and said that the four reports about his fingerprints contradicted one another. Yıldırım also alleged that Ali Yiğit failed to distinguish Tekin from Öztürk when brought to Bayrampaşa Prison.[96] Cross-examining Yiğit, Yıldırım asked him if Demirtaş was present when the police searched for the grenades. Yiğit said "no", contradicting his earlier statement that Demirtaş had arrived after a phone call by the police. (Demirtaş said he was personally not present.)[97]
At the thirteenth hearing, Ali Yiğit said that he mistook someone for Muzaffer Tekin, with whom he shared a cell in Bayrampaşa prison and bonded well enough to look up to as a father figure. He also stated that he had moved out of the building twenty days before they were found. After learning about the grenades, he left his job at the grocery, and became a taxi driver. He was allegedly driving by the house when the police came, and told them that the place was his so that they would not break down the door. However, his uncle Demirtaş did not trust Yiğit and left the keys to Yiğit's brother. They fetched the keys, searched the house, had Yiğit confirm that the grenades had been found and that the house had not been harmed, then took him to the station to obtain his statement, described above. After being detained, Yiğit says he was intimidated by Demirtaş, Kerinçsiz, Yıldırım, and his lawyer. Yıldırım allegedly pressured Yiğit to incriminate his father (Şevki) by calling him a weapons smuggler.[97][98]
Demirtaş strongly denied having made the explanation about the origin of the chest, as alleged by Yiğit. Demirtaş alleged that Yiğit confided to him that he had only seen pictures of Tekin at the police station.[97] According to Radikal, the police threatened him with 39 years in jail if he did not blame Oktay Yıldırım.[99]
Investigation
The investigation was officially launched after an anonymous call in June 2007 to the Trabzon Gendarmerie turned up a chest of grenades belonging to members of the Special Forces Command (Turkish: Özel Harekât Dairesi, ÖHD). An investigation of the network of acquaintances of the suspects turned up more information and snowballed into the present situation. Members of the ÖHD were notably implicated in the covered-up Susurluk scandal from ten years earlier.
The bulk of the Ergenekon indictment was drawn from documents found in 2001 when a former National Intelligence Organization agent named Tuncay Güney got detained (his identity unknown to the police) for a minor offense. Some say this was deliberate, as he provided detailed information to the police about Ergenekon while in detention for an unrelated felony. The Istanbul police force closed the investigation by 2002 citing a lack of incriminating evidence.
Another significant development was the abortive coups of 2004. When the intelligence agencies got wind of an assassination threat towards Chief of Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt and yet another coup planned for 2009 (under Büyükanıt's successor, İlker Başbuğ), the investigation was kick-started. Around the same time, the dissolution of the incumbent Justice and Development Party was proposed.
Trial hearings began on 20 October 2008. Retired public prosecutor Mete Göktürk has estimated that they will last at least one year.[23]
Judiciary
See also: Legal system of the Republic of Turkey
The Istanbul Court of Assize for Organised- and Terror Crimes is handling the case, officially numbered 2007/1536 and sometimes referred to by the name of the location where a cache of weapons was found in 2007, Ümraniye.[100] The indictment number is 2008/623 and the base number (Turkish: esas numarasi) is 2008/968.
The original three prosecutors are Zekeriya Öz (prosecutor-in-chief), Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel and Nihat Taşkın.[101] The judge is Köksal Şengün.[102] Öz rides an armored Mercedes,[103] and is protected by a team of fifteen people.[104]
In September 2008, suspects Muzaffer Tekin, Ergün Poyraz, Kemal Kerinçsiz, Doğu Perinçek and Colonel Erdal Sarızeybek filed a criminal report against the prosecutors, citing “conducting a biased investigation, gross misconduct and exercises not fit to a prosecutor.”[105][106][107] The Minister of Justice, Mehmet Ali Şahin, rejected the inquiry,[108] finding no wrongdoing.[109][110]
In November 2008, the newspaper Cumhuriyet and its publisher, Yeni Gün Haber Ajansı Basın ve Yayıncılık A.Ş., launched a libel suit for 100,000 Lira against the three prosecutors. One of its leading columnists, İlhan Selçuk, is a defendant in the Ergenekon case.[111] Two more prosecutors have been assigned to the case to ensure the trial proceeds without delay.[112]
Allegations
The investigation exposed alleged links between an armed attack on the Turkish Council of State in 2006 that left a judge dead,[113] a bombing of a secularist newspaper,[113] threats and attacks against people accused of being unpatriotic and the 1996 Susurluk incident, as well as links to the plans of some groups in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to overthrow the present government. According to the investigation, Ergenekon had a role in the murder of Hrant Dink, a prominent journalist of Armenian descent[13][114][115] Italian priest Father Andrea Santoro in February 2006 and the brutal murders of three Christians, one a German national, killed in the province of Malatya in April 2007.[116] Furthermore, files about JİTEM related the assassination of former JİTEM commander Cem Ersever, killed in November 1993, to Ergenekon.[116] A former JİTEM member, Abdülkadir Aygan, said that JİTEM is the military wing of Ergenekon.[117]
Documents seized in the investigation if authentic would show that the group planned a bomb attack in İstanbul's Taksim Square, triggering chaos that would be used as a pretext for military intervention. It is also alleged that those detained were involved in provocation and agitation during the Gazi incidents of 1995, when tens of people died in clashes with the police in demonstrations after an attack at an Alevi coffeehouse in the neighborhood.[118]
Recently uncovered evidence suggests that the 1993 death of General Eşref Bitlis, and that of journalist Uğur Mumcu may be related to Ergenekon.[119] Both Bitlis and Mumcu were investigating how Jalal Talabani, one of the Kurdish leaders of northern Iraq and, as of 2008, president of Iraq, came into possession of 100,000 firearms belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces.[120]
Some evidence has been notably omitted from the indictment: the "coup diaries" of general Özden Örnek and certain military documents. The diaries were not included as the prosecutor concluded that, despite being authentic,[121] they were but obtained illegally, said Alper Görmüş, the editor-in-chief of the journal that originally published them.[122] Regarding the military documents, the Armed Forces said that they contained confidential information that could "spark an international crisis".[123]
Militant links
According to Zaman, there are links between Ergenekon and numerous militant organizations, such as the "Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), the Islamist organization Hizbullah, the ultranationalist Turkish Revenge Brigades (TİT), the Turkish Workers' and Peasants' Liberation Army (TİKKO), the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party(MLKP) and the Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an extreme group wishing to reinstate the Islamic Caliphate".[48]
Zaman quoted a senior intelligence officer, Bülent Orakoğlu, as having said that the PKK, Dev Sol, Hezbollah, and Hizb ut-Tahrir are artificial organizations set up by the network, and that Abdullah Öcalan himself is an Ergenekon member.[124] Zaman also writes that the former PKK leader, Şemdin Sakık, said in his testimony that the Ergenekon network was in close contact with the group and even co-operated with it on several occasions. According to Sakık, he was brought to Turkey by a group of men led by Mahmut Yıldırım, also known as Yeşil (Green)—a convicted mafia leader whose name had surfaced in the report on the Susurluk scandal.[125] He is believed to have been killed shortly after the Susurluk scandal.[126]
Sakık said the Ergenekon gang planned to co-operate with a number of terrorist organizations, including the PKK, to achieve its objectives. "This cooperation was realized with Doğu Perinçek (the leader of the Workers' Party) and several other figures. Cemil Bayık (a senior PKK leader) was also among these figures," he remarked.[127] In another Zaman article, JITEM informant Abdulkadir Aygan made a similar remark.[128]
Zaman's claims have been disputed.[129] The testimony of Sakık was not released to the press, hence it is not official. PKK's imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan, declared before court that Sakık had killed 33 people on Ergenekon's orders.[130]
Öcalan dismissed allegations made by intelligence officer Bülent Orakoğlu concerning himself, but he did say that a group inside the PKK, which he called the Zaza Group, had links with Ergenekon. He said that this group was led by Sait Çürükkaya and tried to seize control of the PKK, adding "Particularly in the Diyarbakır-Muş-Bingöl triangle, they have staged intensive and bloody attacks."[131]
Kurdish Democrat Ahmet Acar alleged that Öcalan instructed the PKK-friendly Democratic Society Party (DTP) to remain silent about Ergenekon.[132]
Lieutenant Mehmet Ali Çelebi, detained in the Ergenekon investigations, allegedly had links with the extreme Islamist group Hizb-ut Tahrir.[133] Çelebi was allegedly the key which made possible the arrest of five Hizb-ut-Tahrir members in September 2008.[131] Hizb-ut Tahrir refutes the allegations.[134]
Responding to allegations in Taraf, DHKP/C issued a press release ridiculing claims of its connection to Ergenekon.[135]
Continued[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergenekon_network#cite_note-134"]
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"Ergenekon" is the name given to an alleged clandestine, secular ultra-nationalist[1] organization in Turkey with ties to members of the country's military and security forces.[2] The group is accused of terrorism in Turkey.[3]
Its agenda has variously been described as Eurasianist,[4][5][6] and isolationist.[7] The defendants portray themselves as defenders of secularism, and national sovereignty. According to the indictment, the group's claim to legitimacy is that it allegedly protects national interests, which the defendants believe are incompatible with the rule of the Justice and Development Party and are harmed by Turkey's alleged concessions to the West.[8][9] In Turkey, the extensions of the state—the establishment—that are considered responsible for this are referred to as the "deep state".[10] The existence of the "deep state" was affirmed in Turkish opinion after the Susurluk scandal in 1996.[11]
Alleged members have been indicted on charges of plotting to foment unrest, among other things by assassinating intellectuals, politicians, judges, military staff, and religious leaders, with the ultimate goal of toppling the pro-Western incumbent government[12][13][14] in a coup that was planned to take place in 2009.[15][16] This follows allegations published in Nokta that several abortive coups with the same intent were planned a few years ago. The proximate motive behind these false flag activities is said to be to discredit the incumbent Justice and Development Party and derail Turkey's accession process to the European Union.[17][18]
Ergenekon's modus operandi has been compared to Operation Gladio's Turkish branch, the Counter-Guerrilla. It has been said that the people who constitute the "deep state" are members of, or make use of, this covert organization, which was established at the beginning of the Cold War to contain communism.[19][20][21] Furthermore, Ergenekon is allegedly a derivative of the Counter-Guerrilla.
Over a hundred people, including several generals, party officials, and a former secretary general of the National Security Council, have been detained or questioned since July 2008.[11][22] Hearings began on 20 October 2008, and are expected to continue for over a year.[23]
Commentators in the Turkish press have called Ergenekon "the case of the century".[24]
What is Ergenekon?
An organization named "Ergenekon" has been talked about since the Susurluk scandal, which exposed a similar gang. However, it is said that Ergenekon has undergone serious changes since then. The first person to publicly talk about the organization was retired naval officer Erol Mütercimler, who said in 1997:[25][26]
“ It is above the General Staff, the MİT and the Prime Minister. There are generals, heads of police departments, and businessmen in this organization. ” “ Defining it as a gang is an oversimplification. What is a gang? It is the engagement of a number of people in illegal affairs. You can not define Ergenekon as a gang. It is part of a big organization. Alparslan Türkeş and [retired general] Turgut Sunalp were members of Ergenekon. ” “ As I have worked for the state for many years, I know that forming such an organization necessitates a big budget. It is not easy to establish such an organization as Ergenekon. First of all, it requires a great staff. It needs businessmen, and perhaps drug traffickers. ” Mütercimler said he heard of the original organization's existence from retired general Memduh Ünlütürk, who was involved in the anti-communist Ziverbey interrogations following the 1971 coup.[27] Major general Ünlütürk told Mütercimler that Ergenekon was founded with the support of the CIA and the Pentagon.[28] Mütercimler was detained during the Ergenekon investigation for questioning before being released.[25]
Mütercimler and others, however, draw a distinction between the Ergenekon of today and the original one, which they equate with the Counter-Guerrilla; Operation Gladio's Turkish branch.[5][29][30] Today's Ergenekon is said to be a "splinter" off the old one.[31][32] The person whose testimony contributed most to the indictment, Tuncay Güney, described Ergenekon as a junta related to the Turkish Resistance Organization (Turkish: Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı, TMT) operating in North Cyprus; the TMT was established by founding members of the Counter-Guerrilla.[33] Former North Cyprus President Rauf Denktaş denied any connection of the TMT to Ergenekon.[34]
Another position is that while some of the suspects may be guilty of something, there is no organization to which they are all party, and that the only thing they have in common is opposition to the AKP.[35] There are also allegations that Ergenekon's agenda is in line with the policies of the NSC, elaborated in the top-secret "Red Book" (the National Security Policy Document).[36]
Mütercimler's account was also cited in the first book on the subject, Can Dündar and Celal Kazdağlı's Ergenekon (1997). In an article for Milliyet, Dündar compares Ergenekon with the Susurluk gang, and the Counter-Guerrilla; two other clandestine groups.[5] He says that the Susurluk gang had more funding and that its investigation had more popular support. Dündar also says that Ergenekon differs from the Counter-Guerrilla in that the former leans towards Russia, while the latter leans towards the United States. Claims of Ergenekon's Eurasian affinity are supported by the statements of the movement's chief advocate, Aleksandr Dugin, who called Ergenekon a "pro-Russian group". He said that he knew almost all of the suspects, and praised them for rallying the right and the left (i.e., the opponents of the pro-Western incumbent party, AKP). A salient manifestation of these anti-AKP efforts are the Republic Protests of 2007, under the leadership of Şener Eruygur.[37] The coalition between the left and right (wherein the nominally leftist CHP gravitated to the MHP) was noted by certain observers in the Turkish press in advance of the investigation.[38]
The chairman of the Susurluk commission, Mehmet Elkatmış, said that the Susurluk and Ergenekon gangs are identical except in name. He said that the left is not supportive of the Ergenekon investigation because of revelations that many crimes formerly thought to have been carried out by religious fundamentalists are now claimed to be false flag operations.[39] A noted retired intelligence agent, Mahir Kaynak, says that on the contrary Ergenekon is the antithesis of Susurluk; the former is predominantly military, while the latter was a paramilitary gang that was erected in opposition to the military.[40] Şamil Tayyar of the newspaper Star, who has written books on Ergenekon, says that Ergenekon is not a continuation of Susurluk, but the 9 March junta of the 1971 coup.[41]
The former director of the İstanbul Police Department's Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Department (Turkish: Organize Suçlar Şubesi) said that today's Ergenekon is a military wing of the Susurluk gang.[42]
When the Russian newspaper Kommersant declared Dugin to be the brains behind Ergenekon,[4] Dugin responded that he had no part in illegal activities, but that he saw no crime in sharing their vision of Turkey's future—free from the influence of NATO and the United States.[43]
Perinçek had been participating in the conferences of Dugin's Eurasia Party since 1996 (before Dugin joined). Perinçek claims to be the ideologue of the party,[44] and to have influenced the Eurasia Party, rather than being under its influence.[45]
Structure
Based on documents prepared by one of the prosecutors, an article in Sabah says that the organization consists of six cells with the following personnel:[46]
- Secret and civil cells liaisons: Veli Küçük and Muzaffer Tekin.
- Lobbyists: M. Zekeriya Öztürk, Kemal Kerinçsiz, İsmail Yıldız, and Erkut Ersoy.
- NGO head: Sevgi Erenerol. Kemal Kerinçsiz (assistant).
- Theory, Propaganda, and Disinformation Department head: Doğu Perinçek.
- Mafia structuring head: Veli Küçük. Muzaffer Tekin (assistant).
- Underground contacts: Ali Yasak, Sami Hoştan, Semih Tufan Gülaltay, and Sedat Peker.
- Terrorist organizations heads: Veli Küçük and Doğu Perinçek.
- University structuring: Kemal Yalçın Alemdaroğlu, Emin Gürses, Habib Ümit Sayın.
- Research and information gathering head: Mehmet Zekeriya Öztürk.
- Judicial branch heads: Kemal Kerinçsiz, Fuat Turgut, and Nusret Senem.
Despite the seemingly high status of Veli Küçük in the organization—some have even called him the leader[49]—Şamil Tayyar of the Star daily says that Küçük is not "even among the top ten".[50] The identity of the "number one" member has been revealed by the MİT to the prosecutors, but will not be made public.[51] Some journalists have offered conflicting hints on who it might be, but do not openly name anyone due to a lack of concrete evidence. It is said that the top position is held for a six month term by an active army officer. By selecting active officers, the group maintains connections with the establishment.[52] Suspect-at-large Tuncay Güney says that the identity of the leader can be found by tracing the network's (as yet unknown) financier.[53]
Name
Two explanations have been put forth regarding the genesis of the organization's name, which is used by alleged members and mentioned in several of its documents.[54][55] The first is that the name derives from the Ergenekon myth; a place in Eurasia of mythological significance, esp. among nationalists (see Agartha).[56] Another hypothesis is that organization is named after retired colonel—and Veli Küçük's mentor—Necabettin Ergenekon.[57] Ergenekon distances himself from the group, saying that his name has been tarnished by association with "terrorists". Born in 1926, Erzurum as Necabettin Baltacı, he was suspected by later-assassinated state prosecutor Cevat Yurdakul as being behind a string of mysterious deaths in the 70s. Baltacı had his surname changed "some time in the '60s" to avoid confusion with another person by the same name, before retiring in 1982, says Zaman.[58][59]
Discovery
Although the investigation was officially launched in 2007, the existence of the organization was known beforehand. The files on Ergenekon were discovered after a spy called Tuncay Güney got detained in March 2001 for petty fraud. Some say the crime was a ploy to set the investigation in motion. A police search of his house turned up the six sacks of evidence on which the indictment is based.
One month later, a columnist on good terms with the government, Fehmi Koru, was the first to break the news,[60] under his usual pen name, Taha Kıvanç.[61] His article was based on a key Ergenekon report dated 29 October 1999 and titled "Ergenekon: Analysis, Structuring, Management, and Development Project".[62][63]
Tuncay Güney's testimony (2001)
Main article: Tuncay Güney
The person whose statements to the police in 2001 formed "the backbone of the indictment"[64] was a spy named Tuncay Güney, alias "İpek". Güney is believed to be subordinate to Mehmet Eymür, formerly of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT)'s Counterterrorism Department. Eymür was discharged and his department disbanded in 1997. Güney's relationship to the MİT has been a matter of confusion; his boss was once a MİT employee, while the MİT says Güney was not (specifically, he was not a "registered informant") and that the MİT considered him a suspicious person.[65][66][67][68]
He had allegedly been tasked with infiltrating the gendarmerie's intelligence agency, JITEM, and Ergenekon in 1992.[69] Güney was apprehended in 2001 for issuing fake licenses and plates for luxury cars. He is still sentenced in absentia for this offense.[70] No charges have been brought against him in the frame of the Ergenekon investigation, some say as a result of a bargain struck with the authorities.[71] However, he is currently under investigation,[72] and State Prosecutor Ziya Hurşit Karayurt has proposed that he be subpoenaed.[73] The court is deliberating whether to consolidate his earlier case with the Ergenekon one.[74] In addition, legal proceedings have been initiated to obtain his testimony from abroad using Interpol.[75] Prosecutor Öz has prepared a list of 37 questions for Güney, who says he will co-operate if the questioning is done by the Canadian police.[76]
Güney has been said to conflate fact and fiction,[77][78] casting doubt over the indictment, which names him a "fugitive suspect" (Turkish: firari şüpheli).[79] Güney is seen as such an important figure that rival press groups have exchanged columns accusing one another of attempting to influence public opinion by questioning his credibility.[80][81][82] It is alleged that one the parties, Aydın Doğan, was asked not to publish material about Ergenekon, by Veli Küçük through Doğu Perinçek.[83] In December 2008, Güney said that a Hürriyet reporter offered him a bribe not to talk about the newspaper, one of whose senior members is allegedly in Ergenekon.[84] Hürriyet denied the allegations.[85][86]
Engin Bağbars' testimony (2006)
The convicted leader of a twenty-person narcotics gang, Engin Bağbars, gave a 10.5 hour testimony to the police about Ergenekon on 27 September 2006. He met Ergenekon suspect Muzaffer Tekin in 2005 through a person named Gökhan Başoğlu, who told him that the gang had infiltrated the intelligence agency and the military, and that they had their sights on heading the police force. Başoğlu also proposed to induct Bağbars into the Kuvayı Milliye Derneği. Bağbars says he was being groomed to carry out a disruptive act similar to Hrant Dink's assassination; he was given a Kalashnikov.[87]
Bağbars claims credit for uncovering Ergenekon. Intelligence analysts set to work after his testimony. Other sources say that this occurred on 24 May, at the Tekirdağ State Prosecutor's office.[88] Bağbars was present as a witness in the Ergenekon trial.
Grenades in Ümraniye (2007)
The investigation officially began after the Trabzon Gendarmerie Headquarters' tip-off line received an anonymous call on 12 June 2007 saying that grenades and C-4 explosives were to be found at Güngör Sokak № 2, Çakmak Mahallesi, Ümraniye (
41°1′13.69″N 29°7′10.21″E / 41.0204694°N 29.1195028°E / 41.0204694; 29.1195028 (Site of the arms cache that started the Ergenekon investigation)Coordinates: 41°1′13.69″N 29°7′10.21″E / 41.0204694°N 29.1195028°E / 41.0204694; 29.1195028 (Site of the arms cache that started the Ergenekon investigation)). A search warrant was immediately obtained from the Ümraniye 2. Peace Penal Court. 27 hand grenades (but no C-4) were found in a nylon-covered wooden chest on the roof of a slum at the stated address. According to the indictment, the caller was Şevki Yiğit, the father of the building's tenant, Ali Yiğit. Şevki found the bomb-filled chest by accident and asked his his son about them. Ali then asked the owner of the house, his uncle Mehmet Demirtaş about it. According to Yiğit, Demirtaş responded that there was a chest with military equipment on the roof belonging to ÖHD NCO Oktay Yıldırım, and instructed him to keep quiet about it. Ali Yiğit added that retired captain Muzaffer Tekin and retired NCO Mahmut Öztürk, both of the special forces, once stopped by his grocery store (adjacent to the slum, and owned by Demirtaş) in a black Mercedes while Yıldırım was present, that Yıldırım left only to return with Öztürk 15-20 minutes later in a yellow Opel Corsa, and that his father found the bombs 3-4 months later. Yiğit said that his father, who lives in Trabzon, might have placed the call since he was not on good terms with Demirtaş.[89][90]The grenades were found to bear the same serial number as those used in 14 incidents throughout the country.[91][92][93] They were disposed of two weeks after their discovery on account of their not being preservable.[94]
A search of Yıldırım's office in Reina[95] and Muzaffer Tekin's house revealed a secret document titled "Ergenekon Lobi" about the group's plans. The information in the documents led the authorities to revisit the Tuncay Güney case.
Yıldırım later denied the charges, though his fingerprints were found on the chest. During his trial, he referred to Demirtaş as a former subordinate soldier of his, and said that the four reports about his fingerprints contradicted one another. Yıldırım also alleged that Ali Yiğit failed to distinguish Tekin from Öztürk when brought to Bayrampaşa Prison.[96] Cross-examining Yiğit, Yıldırım asked him if Demirtaş was present when the police searched for the grenades. Yiğit said "no", contradicting his earlier statement that Demirtaş had arrived after a phone call by the police. (Demirtaş said he was personally not present.)[97]
At the thirteenth hearing, Ali Yiğit said that he mistook someone for Muzaffer Tekin, with whom he shared a cell in Bayrampaşa prison and bonded well enough to look up to as a father figure. He also stated that he had moved out of the building twenty days before they were found. After learning about the grenades, he left his job at the grocery, and became a taxi driver. He was allegedly driving by the house when the police came, and told them that the place was his so that they would not break down the door. However, his uncle Demirtaş did not trust Yiğit and left the keys to Yiğit's brother. They fetched the keys, searched the house, had Yiğit confirm that the grenades had been found and that the house had not been harmed, then took him to the station to obtain his statement, described above. After being detained, Yiğit says he was intimidated by Demirtaş, Kerinçsiz, Yıldırım, and his lawyer. Yıldırım allegedly pressured Yiğit to incriminate his father (Şevki) by calling him a weapons smuggler.[97][98]
Demirtaş strongly denied having made the explanation about the origin of the chest, as alleged by Yiğit. Demirtaş alleged that Yiğit confided to him that he had only seen pictures of Tekin at the police station.[97] According to Radikal, the police threatened him with 39 years in jail if he did not blame Oktay Yıldırım.[99]
Investigation
The investigation was officially launched after an anonymous call in June 2007 to the Trabzon Gendarmerie turned up a chest of grenades belonging to members of the Special Forces Command (Turkish: Özel Harekât Dairesi, ÖHD). An investigation of the network of acquaintances of the suspects turned up more information and snowballed into the present situation. Members of the ÖHD were notably implicated in the covered-up Susurluk scandal from ten years earlier.
The bulk of the Ergenekon indictment was drawn from documents found in 2001 when a former National Intelligence Organization agent named Tuncay Güney got detained (his identity unknown to the police) for a minor offense. Some say this was deliberate, as he provided detailed information to the police about Ergenekon while in detention for an unrelated felony. The Istanbul police force closed the investigation by 2002 citing a lack of incriminating evidence.
Another significant development was the abortive coups of 2004. When the intelligence agencies got wind of an assassination threat towards Chief of Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt and yet another coup planned for 2009 (under Büyükanıt's successor, İlker Başbuğ), the investigation was kick-started. Around the same time, the dissolution of the incumbent Justice and Development Party was proposed.
Trial hearings began on 20 October 2008. Retired public prosecutor Mete Göktürk has estimated that they will last at least one year.[23]
Judiciary
See also: Legal system of the Republic of Turkey
The Istanbul Court of Assize for Organised- and Terror Crimes is handling the case, officially numbered 2007/1536 and sometimes referred to by the name of the location where a cache of weapons was found in 2007, Ümraniye.[100] The indictment number is 2008/623 and the base number (Turkish: esas numarasi) is 2008/968.
The original three prosecutors are Zekeriya Öz (prosecutor-in-chief), Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel and Nihat Taşkın.[101] The judge is Köksal Şengün.[102] Öz rides an armored Mercedes,[103] and is protected by a team of fifteen people.[104]
In September 2008, suspects Muzaffer Tekin, Ergün Poyraz, Kemal Kerinçsiz, Doğu Perinçek and Colonel Erdal Sarızeybek filed a criminal report against the prosecutors, citing “conducting a biased investigation, gross misconduct and exercises not fit to a prosecutor.”[105][106][107] The Minister of Justice, Mehmet Ali Şahin, rejected the inquiry,[108] finding no wrongdoing.[109][110]
In November 2008, the newspaper Cumhuriyet and its publisher, Yeni Gün Haber Ajansı Basın ve Yayıncılık A.Ş., launched a libel suit for 100,000 Lira against the three prosecutors. One of its leading columnists, İlhan Selçuk, is a defendant in the Ergenekon case.[111] Two more prosecutors have been assigned to the case to ensure the trial proceeds without delay.[112]
Allegations
The investigation exposed alleged links between an armed attack on the Turkish Council of State in 2006 that left a judge dead,[113] a bombing of a secularist newspaper,[113] threats and attacks against people accused of being unpatriotic and the 1996 Susurluk incident, as well as links to the plans of some groups in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to overthrow the present government. According to the investigation, Ergenekon had a role in the murder of Hrant Dink, a prominent journalist of Armenian descent[13][114][115] Italian priest Father Andrea Santoro in February 2006 and the brutal murders of three Christians, one a German national, killed in the province of Malatya in April 2007.[116] Furthermore, files about JİTEM related the assassination of former JİTEM commander Cem Ersever, killed in November 1993, to Ergenekon.[116] A former JİTEM member, Abdülkadir Aygan, said that JİTEM is the military wing of Ergenekon.[117]
Documents seized in the investigation if authentic would show that the group planned a bomb attack in İstanbul's Taksim Square, triggering chaos that would be used as a pretext for military intervention. It is also alleged that those detained were involved in provocation and agitation during the Gazi incidents of 1995, when tens of people died in clashes with the police in demonstrations after an attack at an Alevi coffeehouse in the neighborhood.[118]
Recently uncovered evidence suggests that the 1993 death of General Eşref Bitlis, and that of journalist Uğur Mumcu may be related to Ergenekon.[119] Both Bitlis and Mumcu were investigating how Jalal Talabani, one of the Kurdish leaders of northern Iraq and, as of 2008, president of Iraq, came into possession of 100,000 firearms belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces.[120]
Some evidence has been notably omitted from the indictment: the "coup diaries" of general Özden Örnek and certain military documents. The diaries were not included as the prosecutor concluded that, despite being authentic,[121] they were but obtained illegally, said Alper Görmüş, the editor-in-chief of the journal that originally published them.[122] Regarding the military documents, the Armed Forces said that they contained confidential information that could "spark an international crisis".[123]
Militant links
According to Zaman, there are links between Ergenekon and numerous militant organizations, such as the "Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), the Islamist organization Hizbullah, the ultranationalist Turkish Revenge Brigades (TİT), the Turkish Workers' and Peasants' Liberation Army (TİKKO), the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party(MLKP) and the Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an extreme group wishing to reinstate the Islamic Caliphate".[48]
Zaman quoted a senior intelligence officer, Bülent Orakoğlu, as having said that the PKK, Dev Sol, Hezbollah, and Hizb ut-Tahrir are artificial organizations set up by the network, and that Abdullah Öcalan himself is an Ergenekon member.[124] Zaman also writes that the former PKK leader, Şemdin Sakık, said in his testimony that the Ergenekon network was in close contact with the group and even co-operated with it on several occasions. According to Sakık, he was brought to Turkey by a group of men led by Mahmut Yıldırım, also known as Yeşil (Green)—a convicted mafia leader whose name had surfaced in the report on the Susurluk scandal.[125] He is believed to have been killed shortly after the Susurluk scandal.[126]
Sakık said the Ergenekon gang planned to co-operate with a number of terrorist organizations, including the PKK, to achieve its objectives. "This cooperation was realized with Doğu Perinçek (the leader of the Workers' Party) and several other figures. Cemil Bayık (a senior PKK leader) was also among these figures," he remarked.[127] In another Zaman article, JITEM informant Abdulkadir Aygan made a similar remark.[128]
Zaman's claims have been disputed.[129] The testimony of Sakık was not released to the press, hence it is not official. PKK's imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan, declared before court that Sakık had killed 33 people on Ergenekon's orders.[130]
Öcalan dismissed allegations made by intelligence officer Bülent Orakoğlu concerning himself, but he did say that a group inside the PKK, which he called the Zaza Group, had links with Ergenekon. He said that this group was led by Sait Çürükkaya and tried to seize control of the PKK, adding "Particularly in the Diyarbakır-Muş-Bingöl triangle, they have staged intensive and bloody attacks."[131]
Kurdish Democrat Ahmet Acar alleged that Öcalan instructed the PKK-friendly Democratic Society Party (DTP) to remain silent about Ergenekon.[132]
Lieutenant Mehmet Ali Çelebi, detained in the Ergenekon investigations, allegedly had links with the extreme Islamist group Hizb-ut Tahrir.[133] Çelebi was allegedly the key which made possible the arrest of five Hizb-ut-Tahrir members in September 2008.[131] Hizb-ut Tahrir refutes the allegations.[134]
Responding to allegations in Taraf, DHKP/C issued a press release ridiculing claims of its connection to Ergenekon.[135]
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