28-03-2009, 04:53 AM
2009 coup plan
One of the most persistent allegations is that the organization has been planning to execute a coup in 2009. The alleged masterminds behind this coup plot are generals Kemal Yavuz and Tuncer Kılınç; Yavuz co-ordinating the Ankara troops, and Kılınç the Istanbul troops. Both generals were detained in January 2009. The co-ordination is allegedly done through grass roots headquarters (Turkish: Karargâh evleri).[136] The Turkish police said the round-up was triggered by orders Ibrahim Sahin gave to assassinate 12 Armenian leaders in Sivas.[137]
Suspects
Main article: List of suspects in the Ergenekon investigation
86 people were indicted in July 2008, 48 of whom were detained.[113][138] Journalist Claire Berlinksi writes "Many of the accused are, if not guilty as charged, guilty of something…If you put all the defendants in a room together, they’d kill each other".[35]
Kuddusi Okkır, detained for allegedly being the financial supplier of the Ergenekon network, died from cancer only a few days after he was released. According to his wife, Sabriye Okkır, he was in stable condition prior to his arrest on 23 June 2007. She claims that the authorities have done nothing to save her husband's life and filed a complaint to the Ministry of Justice.[139] Shortly after that the ministry opened an investigation to determine the accuracy of those claims.[140][141]
High-ranking generals (Hurşit Tolon and Şener Eruygur), for whom a separate indictment is being prepared,[142] are for the first time being tried in a civilian court. Tolon disavows any relationship to the organization and says that he was scapegoated.[143] Retired military judge Ümit Kardaş said that the detainment of Tolon and Eruygur was done with the consent of the high command, reflecting its disowning of neonationalism (Turkish: ulusalcılık).[144]
A fresh wave of detentions in January 2009 netted 37 more people, including some generals, after consulting the high command, which swiftly gave permission.[145] (The Minister of Defense, Vecdi Gönül, was not consulted.[146]) One of them, Tuncer Kılınç, is the former secretary general of the National Security Council (formerly a military institution). Immediately before the arrests, well-connected journalist Şamil Tayyar speculated on whether Kılınç is the leader. (Tayyar is coincidentally promoting his new book on Ergenekon, Kıt’a Dur.)[147][148][149] Twelve of the arrests took place in Sivas, where weapons were also found. According to Zaman, the Sivas raid is connected to numerous plots mentioned in the indictment.[150] Police chief İbrahim Şahin allegedly made phone calls to order the attack.[151][152] Two of the twelve were released the next day.[153] A map indicating the location of arms caches was found on detainee İbrahim Şahin; the former chief of the police force's Special Operations Department (Turkish: Özel Harekat Dairesi). Excavations are underway; numerous weapons have been found.[154] This wave was particularly divisive, as it included numerous senior military officials. There is a concern that the move was politically motivated, and will affect the direction of the investigation.[155]
Most suspects face at least ten years in prison. The suspected ringleaders, Doğu Perinçek, Mehmet Fikri Karadağ, Veli Küçük, İlhan Selçuk and Muzaffer Tekin will be held responsible for criminal acts perpetrated by subordinates, and receive life sentences.[156]
Munitions
A common objection raised by detractors of the investigation is that the group does not have the wherewithal to carry out large-scale militant acts. This section aims to clarify what is known about the organization's munitions. This is also of relevance to linking acts carried out by the organization, as it has been alleged that weapons of the same type and serial number were found in several locations. Debate has focused in particular on the grenades, which can be uniquely identified by the fuse type (Turkish: fünye grubu) and batch number (Turkish: kafile numarası).[157]
According to police officials, "HGR DM 41" indicates German origin, SPLITTER denotes a fragmentation grenade, "COMP-B" means composition B, "LOS" indicates European production up to NATO standards, while the number following "FMP" indicates the batch.[158]
Akhisar and Eyüp One of the two grenades recovered in Akhisar, Manisa had the serial number HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 24. Another grenade from Eyüp, İstanbul had the serial number HGR DM 41 COMP-B LOS FMR-24.[158]
Urla, İzmir (1999) One of the ten grenades had the serial number HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 16.[158]
Şemdinli (2005) Two grenades used in the Şemdinli incident on 9 November 2005 were found to bear the serial number HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 134.[159]
Cumhuriyet (2006) Alparslan bombed the offices of the newspaper Cumhuriyet in May 2006. The grenades did not go off in his first two attempts; he succeeded on his third. The NATO standard, Makine ve Kimya Endüstrisi Kurumu (MKE) model 44 grenades had the following serial numbers:[157]
Ümraniye, İstanbul (12 June 2007) The serial numbers of some of the 27 grenades found in Ümraniye are:[159]
Fikret Emek (26 June 2007) The recovered materiel included 11kg of C-3, a telescopic rifle, a Kalashnikov, a shotgun, M-16 shells, 12 grenades (10 from the MKE), smoke bombs, 12 210g TNT setups, 6 500g TNT moulds, a 1.5kg TNT mould, a 1 kg demolition block, ignition munitions. This is sufficient to flatten a twelve-floor reinforced concrete structure, with each floor over 400 m2.[161] The grenades have serial number TAPA M204 A2/KF-MKE-91 12-77, matching the ones from the Cumhuriyet attack.[157][103]
Trabzon (13 December 2008) With the help of a tip-off on 3 December 2008,[162] the Trabzon police found nine grenades of the same batch number as those in Ümraniye. In nearby Yomra, the police seized a gun and eight 7.65 mm bullets for it, a Kalashnikov rifle and three chargers, a total of 420 7.62 mm Kalashnikov bullets and a grenade. In the city, eight grenades were found; seven hidden inside a washing machine, and another in an oven. Trabzon governor Nuri Okutan said that none of the suspects were public officials or members of the military.[163] The serial numbers of the Trabzon grenades are:[159]
Mustafa Dönmez (7 January 2009) 22 grenades, over 100 bullets, 1 Kalashnikov, and 4 pistols were found in Dönmez's vacation house in Sakarya.[103]
İbrahim Şahin (7 January 2009) Three drawings and 9 unlicensed Glock pistols were found in the home of special forces police chief İbrahim Şahin. The drawings led to the excavation of 8000 bullets (mostly Uzi), 2 light-weight anti-tank weapons, 1 kg of plastic explosives, 10 hand grenades whose serial numbers had been removed and 10 smoke bombs. The recovered weapons were determined to be buried in July 2008 (the month generals Eruygur and Tolon were detained). They are reported to be different from the ones that were entrusted to Şahin's department and went missing after Susurluk scandal.[164]
Response
Many people have criticized the manner in which the Ergenekon investigation is being conducted, citing in particular the length of the indictment,[165] wiretapping in breach of privacy laws,[166][167] illegal collection of evidence,[168] and political motivations.[129][169] The media's coverage of the investigation has also been criticized—for bombarding readers with speculations,[170] and releasing misinformation outright.[171][172]
Some have said that the investigation is intended to clamp down on the incumbent party's secular opposition, pointing to the coincident timing of the dissolution case against the AKP and the Ergenekon probe.[173] Superficially, the chronology surrounding the two events would seem to suggest otherwise, as the AKP dissolution case was started on 14 March 2008,[174] whereas the bombs in Ümraniye which exposed the network were discovered nine months earlier, on 13 June 2007.[175] However, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) had presented a diagram of the network to prime minister Erdogan and the chief of staff in 2003—well before the investigation.[176] Furthermore, the government had the Ergenekon files since 2001.[177] Ankara University's Baskın Oran sees such reactions as indicative of the left's inability to accurately assess the situation, and says that the state is simply purging itself of undemocratic elements.[178] Murat Belge of Istanbul Bilgi University thinks there is a connection between the dissolution case against the AKP and the Ergenekon investigation, and says the Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertuğrul Günay admits as much.[179] Belge was tortured in 1972 by Veli Küçük at the infamous Ziverbey villa; a Counter-Guerrilla intimidation operation.[17]
Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Mark Parris, said that one of the most important actors in the current crisis in Turkey are the unknown third forces behind the Ergenekon probe that may be acting on behalf of the prime minister, or that the prime minister may or may not know about. The alleged unknown forces, organized in the Police Intelligence department and has prosecutors, seem to be united against the front that want to topple Erdogan and are determined to stop them.[180][181]
In August 2008, 300 intellectuals from Turkey declared their support for the investigation and called upon all civil and military institutions to deepen the investigation in order to reveal the rest of the people tied to Ergenekon.[182]
In September 2008, the Justice and Development Party became mired in a corruption scandal related to the Deniz Feneri ("Lighthouse") charity based in Germany. The Doğan Media Group, in particular, jumped on the scandal, leading to a public feud between its owner, Aydın Doğan, and the prime minister, Erdoğan.[183] The former chief of the MİT's defunct Counter-Terrorism Department, Mehmet Eymür, described the affair as a retaliation by Ergenekon.[184][185]
Trial hearings
The trials were held up when some of the suspects' lawyers exercised their right to have the indictment—all 2,455 pages of it—read out loud.[186] Most of the time from the third hearing on 27 October to the eleventh on 10 November was devoted to reading it.[187]
In a separate trial, the Şişli Second Criminal Court concluded that the organization does not exist and sentenced author Zihni Çakır to 18 months in prison for "violating the secrecy of an ongoing legal investigation"[188] and chided him libeling the Turkish Armed Forces.[189] The judge who penned the verdict, Hakkı Yalçınkaya, was shown to have a suspicious relationship with Kemal Kerinçsiz, according to a phone conversation from December 2007, recorded under warrant. Yalçınkaya was one of the judges on the case of Hrant Dink; a person Kerinçsiz was particularly critical of.[190]
Suspect Ali Yiğit, whose uncle owned the house in Ümraniye, testified at the thirteenth hearing that the bombs in the house belonged to Oktay Yıldırım.[191]
At the twenty third hearing, defendants Mehmet Zekeriya Öztürk and Vatan Bölükbaşoğlu were questioned about their alleged possession of pornography. Öztürk said the laptop in which the images were found was not his. Bölükbaşoğlu said the images attributed to him may have been planted by the police.[192] Fikret Emek, who retired from the Special Forces Command (Turkish: Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı) in 2004, was questioned about explosives and guns he had allegedly captured from the PKK and entrusted to his mother in Eskişehir. Emek said that the weapons were with his mother for fifteen years, and no longer functional. The TNT was allegedly from 1950, and the grenades from 1977-78 and 1984. Judge Köksal Şengün questioned Emek over why he did not turn over the capture weapons to the military, and Emek condeded that he had made a mistake.[161]
At the twenty sixth hearing on December 15, Veli Küçük's lawyer, his daughter Zeynep, pointed out discrepancies between statements attributed to his father mentioned in different parts of the indictment and its annexes.[193] The lawyer also pointed out contradictions in the statements of Osman Yıldırım (convicted of bombing Cumhuriyet).[194] Veli Küçük said he was bewildered that the "state" had framed him. Former JITEM operative Abdülkadir Aygan and Susurluk Commission member Fikri Sağlar both interpreted this as a message from Küçük to his peers in the deep state ("the Establishment") that he would confess unless they soon come to his rescue.[195][196]
One of the most persistent allegations is that the organization has been planning to execute a coup in 2009. The alleged masterminds behind this coup plot are generals Kemal Yavuz and Tuncer Kılınç; Yavuz co-ordinating the Ankara troops, and Kılınç the Istanbul troops. Both generals were detained in January 2009. The co-ordination is allegedly done through grass roots headquarters (Turkish: Karargâh evleri).[136] The Turkish police said the round-up was triggered by orders Ibrahim Sahin gave to assassinate 12 Armenian leaders in Sivas.[137]
Suspects
Main article: List of suspects in the Ergenekon investigation
86 people were indicted in July 2008, 48 of whom were detained.[113][138] Journalist Claire Berlinksi writes "Many of the accused are, if not guilty as charged, guilty of something…If you put all the defendants in a room together, they’d kill each other".[35]
Kuddusi Okkır, detained for allegedly being the financial supplier of the Ergenekon network, died from cancer only a few days after he was released. According to his wife, Sabriye Okkır, he was in stable condition prior to his arrest on 23 June 2007. She claims that the authorities have done nothing to save her husband's life and filed a complaint to the Ministry of Justice.[139] Shortly after that the ministry opened an investigation to determine the accuracy of those claims.[140][141]
High-ranking generals (Hurşit Tolon and Şener Eruygur), for whom a separate indictment is being prepared,[142] are for the first time being tried in a civilian court. Tolon disavows any relationship to the organization and says that he was scapegoated.[143] Retired military judge Ümit Kardaş said that the detainment of Tolon and Eruygur was done with the consent of the high command, reflecting its disowning of neonationalism (Turkish: ulusalcılık).[144]
A fresh wave of detentions in January 2009 netted 37 more people, including some generals, after consulting the high command, which swiftly gave permission.[145] (The Minister of Defense, Vecdi Gönül, was not consulted.[146]) One of them, Tuncer Kılınç, is the former secretary general of the National Security Council (formerly a military institution). Immediately before the arrests, well-connected journalist Şamil Tayyar speculated on whether Kılınç is the leader. (Tayyar is coincidentally promoting his new book on Ergenekon, Kıt’a Dur.)[147][148][149] Twelve of the arrests took place in Sivas, where weapons were also found. According to Zaman, the Sivas raid is connected to numerous plots mentioned in the indictment.[150] Police chief İbrahim Şahin allegedly made phone calls to order the attack.[151][152] Two of the twelve were released the next day.[153] A map indicating the location of arms caches was found on detainee İbrahim Şahin; the former chief of the police force's Special Operations Department (Turkish: Özel Harekat Dairesi). Excavations are underway; numerous weapons have been found.[154] This wave was particularly divisive, as it included numerous senior military officials. There is a concern that the move was politically motivated, and will affect the direction of the investigation.[155]
Most suspects face at least ten years in prison. The suspected ringleaders, Doğu Perinçek, Mehmet Fikri Karadağ, Veli Küçük, İlhan Selçuk and Muzaffer Tekin will be held responsible for criminal acts perpetrated by subordinates, and receive life sentences.[156]
Munitions
A common objection raised by detractors of the investigation is that the group does not have the wherewithal to carry out large-scale militant acts. This section aims to clarify what is known about the organization's munitions. This is also of relevance to linking acts carried out by the organization, as it has been alleged that weapons of the same type and serial number were found in several locations. Debate has focused in particular on the grenades, which can be uniquely identified by the fuse type (Turkish: fünye grubu) and batch number (Turkish: kafile numarası).[157]
According to police officials, "HGR DM 41" indicates German origin, SPLITTER denotes a fragmentation grenade, "COMP-B" means composition B, "LOS" indicates European production up to NATO standards, while the number following "FMP" indicates the batch.[158]
Akhisar and Eyüp One of the two grenades recovered in Akhisar, Manisa had the serial number HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 24. Another grenade from Eyüp, İstanbul had the serial number HGR DM 41 COMP-B LOS FMR-24.[158]
Urla, İzmir (1999) One of the ten grenades had the serial number HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 16.[158]
Şemdinli (2005) Two grenades used in the Şemdinli incident on 9 November 2005 were found to bear the serial number HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 134.[159]
Cumhuriyet (2006) Alparslan bombed the offices of the newspaper Cumhuriyet in May 2006. The grenades did not go off in his first two attempts; he succeeded on his third. The NATO standard, Makine ve Kimya Endüstrisi Kurumu (MKE) model 44 grenades had the following serial numbers:[157]
- TAPA M 204 A 2/KF-MKE-91 12-77 (5 May 2006)
- TAPA M 204 A 2/KF-MKE-173 9-85 (10 May 2006)
- TAPA M 204 A 2/KF-MKE-91 12-77 (11 May 2006)
Ümraniye, İstanbul (12 June 2007) The serial numbers of some of the 27 grenades found in Ümraniye are:[159]
- HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 16
- HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 24
- HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 22
- TAPA M 204 A2/KF-MKE-169 5-85[157]
Fikret Emek (26 June 2007) The recovered materiel included 11kg of C-3, a telescopic rifle, a Kalashnikov, a shotgun, M-16 shells, 12 grenades (10 from the MKE), smoke bombs, 12 210g TNT setups, 6 500g TNT moulds, a 1.5kg TNT mould, a 1 kg demolition block, ignition munitions. This is sufficient to flatten a twelve-floor reinforced concrete structure, with each floor over 400 m2.[161] The grenades have serial number TAPA M204 A2/KF-MKE-91 12-77, matching the ones from the Cumhuriyet attack.[157][103]
Trabzon (13 December 2008) With the help of a tip-off on 3 December 2008,[162] the Trabzon police found nine grenades of the same batch number as those in Ümraniye. In nearby Yomra, the police seized a gun and eight 7.65 mm bullets for it, a Kalashnikov rifle and three chargers, a total of 420 7.62 mm Kalashnikov bullets and a grenade. In the city, eight grenades were found; seven hidden inside a washing machine, and another in an oven. Trabzon governor Nuri Okutan said that none of the suspects were public officials or members of the military.[163] The serial numbers of the Trabzon grenades are:[159]
- HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 143
- HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 197
- HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 125
Mustafa Dönmez (7 January 2009) 22 grenades, over 100 bullets, 1 Kalashnikov, and 4 pistols were found in Dönmez's vacation house in Sakarya.[103]
İbrahim Şahin (7 January 2009) Three drawings and 9 unlicensed Glock pistols were found in the home of special forces police chief İbrahim Şahin. The drawings led to the excavation of 8000 bullets (mostly Uzi), 2 light-weight anti-tank weapons, 1 kg of plastic explosives, 10 hand grenades whose serial numbers had been removed and 10 smoke bombs. The recovered weapons were determined to be buried in July 2008 (the month generals Eruygur and Tolon were detained). They are reported to be different from the ones that were entrusted to Şahin's department and went missing after Susurluk scandal.[164]
Response
Many people have criticized the manner in which the Ergenekon investigation is being conducted, citing in particular the length of the indictment,[165] wiretapping in breach of privacy laws,[166][167] illegal collection of evidence,[168] and political motivations.[129][169] The media's coverage of the investigation has also been criticized—for bombarding readers with speculations,[170] and releasing misinformation outright.[171][172]
Some have said that the investigation is intended to clamp down on the incumbent party's secular opposition, pointing to the coincident timing of the dissolution case against the AKP and the Ergenekon probe.[173] Superficially, the chronology surrounding the two events would seem to suggest otherwise, as the AKP dissolution case was started on 14 March 2008,[174] whereas the bombs in Ümraniye which exposed the network were discovered nine months earlier, on 13 June 2007.[175] However, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) had presented a diagram of the network to prime minister Erdogan and the chief of staff in 2003—well before the investigation.[176] Furthermore, the government had the Ergenekon files since 2001.[177] Ankara University's Baskın Oran sees such reactions as indicative of the left's inability to accurately assess the situation, and says that the state is simply purging itself of undemocratic elements.[178] Murat Belge of Istanbul Bilgi University thinks there is a connection between the dissolution case against the AKP and the Ergenekon investigation, and says the Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertuğrul Günay admits as much.[179] Belge was tortured in 1972 by Veli Küçük at the infamous Ziverbey villa; a Counter-Guerrilla intimidation operation.[17]
Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Mark Parris, said that one of the most important actors in the current crisis in Turkey are the unknown third forces behind the Ergenekon probe that may be acting on behalf of the prime minister, or that the prime minister may or may not know about. The alleged unknown forces, organized in the Police Intelligence department and has prosecutors, seem to be united against the front that want to topple Erdogan and are determined to stop them.[180][181]
In August 2008, 300 intellectuals from Turkey declared their support for the investigation and called upon all civil and military institutions to deepen the investigation in order to reveal the rest of the people tied to Ergenekon.[182]
In September 2008, the Justice and Development Party became mired in a corruption scandal related to the Deniz Feneri ("Lighthouse") charity based in Germany. The Doğan Media Group, in particular, jumped on the scandal, leading to a public feud between its owner, Aydın Doğan, and the prime minister, Erdoğan.[183] The former chief of the MİT's defunct Counter-Terrorism Department, Mehmet Eymür, described the affair as a retaliation by Ergenekon.[184][185]
Trial hearings
The trials were held up when some of the suspects' lawyers exercised their right to have the indictment—all 2,455 pages of it—read out loud.[186] Most of the time from the third hearing on 27 October to the eleventh on 10 November was devoted to reading it.[187]
In a separate trial, the Şişli Second Criminal Court concluded that the organization does not exist and sentenced author Zihni Çakır to 18 months in prison for "violating the secrecy of an ongoing legal investigation"[188] and chided him libeling the Turkish Armed Forces.[189] The judge who penned the verdict, Hakkı Yalçınkaya, was shown to have a suspicious relationship with Kemal Kerinçsiz, according to a phone conversation from December 2007, recorded under warrant. Yalçınkaya was one of the judges on the case of Hrant Dink; a person Kerinçsiz was particularly critical of.[190]
Suspect Ali Yiğit, whose uncle owned the house in Ümraniye, testified at the thirteenth hearing that the bombs in the house belonged to Oktay Yıldırım.[191]
At the twenty third hearing, defendants Mehmet Zekeriya Öztürk and Vatan Bölükbaşoğlu were questioned about their alleged possession of pornography. Öztürk said the laptop in which the images were found was not his. Bölükbaşoğlu said the images attributed to him may have been planted by the police.[192] Fikret Emek, who retired from the Special Forces Command (Turkish: Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı) in 2004, was questioned about explosives and guns he had allegedly captured from the PKK and entrusted to his mother in Eskişehir. Emek said that the weapons were with his mother for fifteen years, and no longer functional. The TNT was allegedly from 1950, and the grenades from 1977-78 and 1984. Judge Köksal Şengün questioned Emek over why he did not turn over the capture weapons to the military, and Emek condeded that he had made a mistake.[161]
At the twenty sixth hearing on December 15, Veli Küçük's lawyer, his daughter Zeynep, pointed out discrepancies between statements attributed to his father mentioned in different parts of the indictment and its annexes.[193] The lawyer also pointed out contradictions in the statements of Osman Yıldırım (convicted of bombing Cumhuriyet).[194] Veli Küçük said he was bewildered that the "state" had framed him. Former JITEM operative Abdülkadir Aygan and Susurluk Commission member Fikri Sağlar both interpreted this as a message from Küçük to his peers in the deep state ("the Establishment") that he would confess unless they soon come to his rescue.[195][196]
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.