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ANKARA: Ergenekon Unveiled: Gang Charged With Terror, Subversion

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  • ANKARA: Ergenekon Unveiled: Gang Charged With Terror, Subversion

    ERGENEKON UNVEILED: GANG CHARGED WITH TERROR, SUBVERSION

    Today's Zaman
    July 15 2008
    Turkey

    Ä°stanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin yesterday announced at
    a press conference that a long-awaited indictment against suspects
    in the Ergenekon investigation has been completed and submitted to
    a higher criminal court for review.

    The indictment against Ergenekon, a shadowy criminal network made up of
    retired -- and possibly current -- army members, academics, journalists
    and others allegedly plotting a coup against the government, has
    been in preparation for a year since the investigation started last
    summer, when police discovered a house full of ammunition and guns
    in Ä°stanbul's Umraniye district.

    Engin said the suspects are being accused of various crimes, such as
    "membership in an armed terrorist group," "aiding and abetting an
    armed terrorist organization," "attempting to destroy the government
    of the Republic of Turkey or to block it from performing its duties,"
    "inciting people to rebel against the Republic of Turkey," "being in
    possession of explosives, using them, and inciting others to commit
    these crimes," "inciting others to stage the 2006 Council of State
    shooting and a hand grenade attack at the Cumhuriyet newspaper's
    Ä°stanbul office," "acquiring secret documents on national security,"
    "recording personal data," "encouraging soldiers to disobey superiors,"
    "openly provoking hatred and hostility" and other similar crimes. He
    did not clarify which suspects were accused of which crimes.

    Engin said the indictment included accusations against 86 suspects,
    48 of whom are currently in custody. He also said the indictment
    is 2,455 pages long. Two former senior generals arrested this month
    are not yet being charged. Also, earlier press reports were wrong in
    claiming that the indictment used as evidence excerpts from a diary
    allegedly kept by retired Naval Force Commander Adm. Ozden Ornek.

    The prosecutor made clear that a terrorist organization is not always
    defined according to the conventional meaning. He said, "According
    to Article 1 of the anti-terror law, those who are convicted of
    endangering the existence of the Turkish Republic, weakening,
    destroying or seizing the authority of the state, eliminating
    fundamental rights and freedoms or damaging the internal and external
    security of the state and public order are considered perpetrators
    of terrorism."

    Council of State and Cumhuriyet attacks

    Although the link between Ergenekon and the 2006 Council of State
    shooting and a hand grenade thrown at the staunchly secularist
    Cumhuriyet daily had been established previously by some media
    organs, this is the first time the group is formally being accused
    of having incited the perpetrators, who, in the wake of the attacks,
    had appeared to be religious fundamentalists. Documents seized during
    the Ergenekon investigation over the past year have shown, one after
    another, that the group had staged and also planned a large number of
    politically motivated attacks and assassinations to create chaos and
    fear in the country, which they hoped would eventually trigger a coup
    d'état and foment public opinion supporting military intervention.

    The chief prosecutor said documents and evidence gathered during
    the operations carried out in the investigation into the Umraniye
    arms depot had continued to this day with the work of three public
    prosecutors authorized by the relevant articles of the Code on Criminal
    Procedure (CMK).

    He said the three prosecutors have prepared an indictment regarding
    the parts of the investigation that have been completed so far. Engin
    said the indictment was presented to the Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal
    Court through Turkey's National Judiciary Network Project (UYAP)
    after review by the authorized deputy chief prosecutor.

    Lengthy preparation period

    The prosecutor said that the latest wave of detentions and arrests in
    the Ergenekon investigation, which came on July 1, 2008, had launched
    a new phase in the investigation. He said another indictment would
    be presented for the individuals detained in the latest operation.

    "One of the topics criticized most frequently by media organs as well
    as the public about the indictment was that its preparation took more
    than a year," the prosecutor said, explaining: "According to the public
    prosecutors, the preparation of the indictment, comprising 2,455 pages
    and backed by 441 folders of evidence, has extended to today due
    to a number of unavoidable reasons, such as the large scope of the
    investigation, the large number of suspects being held, hundreds of
    thousands of pages of documents acquired at the end of technical and
    physical operations and searches requiring more operations in turn,
    ordering, classifying and reviewing of these documents, expecting
    official replies from institutions that have been queried about these
    documents and the necessity brought by the new CMK that every single
    evidence forming the basis of an indictment should be collected before
    a case can be opened."

    Engin also said the condition of those who were taken into custody and
    arrested had been reviewed throughout the investigation on a monthly
    basis by various courts, which have all ruled to keep the suspects
    in jail.

    The chief prosecutor noted that the court to which the indictment
    had been presented had not yet announced its decision on whether the
    indictment has been accepted or rejected. Until the indictment is
    approved by the court, the confidentiality of the document will be
    observed, Engin said. He said it was not possible at this time to
    make a detailed explanation about the indictment or the case.

    The prosecutor emphasized that the various crimes he had read out loud
    at the beginning of the press conference were not being attributed to
    all of the suspects. He said under a provision of the Article 220 of
    the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) "leaders of organizations are penalized,
    additionally, as perpetrators of the crimes committed during the
    activities of the organization."

    Who are the Ergenekon suspects?

    The gang is accused of a number of failed coup attempts planned by
    some of the suspects while serving in the military as high-ranking
    generals. According to news reports, the indictment uses as evidence
    documents seized in the suspects' offices and homes during the
    Ergenekon investigation which revealed that some retired generals had
    attempted to stage four coups against the Justice and Development Party
    (AK Party) government.

    The indictment claims Ergenekon operations were behind the killing of a
    senior judge in a 2006 shooting at the Council of State. News reports
    earlier linked the group to the assassination of Turkish-Armenian
    journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead by an ultranationalist
    teenager in January 2007, but it is not yet clear whether the
    indictment makes this accusation.

    Retired generals HurÅ~_it Tolon and Å~^ener Eruygur, who were both
    arrested in the latest wave of operations this year on suspicion of
    "setting up and leading an armed gang," have not yet been charged. The
    powerful chairman of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO), Sinan
    Aygun, who will be indicted separately along with the other suspects
    who were taken into custody earlier this month, was released yesterday.

    -------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------

    More than 100 journalists cover Ergenekon announcement A press
    conference called yesterday by Ä°stanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz
    Engin to make an announcement regarding the Ergenekon indictment was
    covered by a large crowd of national and international media entities.

    Engin called the conference for 11 a.m. initially, but the
    announcement actually began 15 minutes earlier. In addition to nearly
    100 journalists, 40 TV cameras and 21 live TV crews, foreign press
    agencies including Al Jazeera, The Associated Press, Reuters and Iran's
    Press TV showed up to cover the announcement. The press conference,
    held in front of the BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ Courthouse in central Ä°stanbul,
    was broadcast live on virtually all of Turkey's TV stations.

    Engin read the five-page text of his announcement from a podium during
    the nearly 20-minute press conference. At the end of the statement,
    he replied to a single question regarding the reason the operation had
    been named "Ergenekon." The chief prosecutor said the word Ergenekon
    was used by the group to refer to themselves and that the name had
    nothing to do with the prosecutors. Police officers serving at the
    BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ Courthouse yesterday had tightened security both inside
    and outside of the courthouse during the conference.

    --Boundary_(ID_DkqgKoqf4Q1sJ/jBgcq2bA )--
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