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Today's Zaman, Turkey
20 October 2008, Monday
Ergenekon case: Trial of the century starts today
Journalist and Kanaltürk founder Tuncay Ã-zkan was taken
into custody in September at his home in Ä°stanbul as part of
the Ergenekon investigation.
Today marks the start of the landmark trial of 86 individuals
suspected of membership in Ergenekon, a crime network with links to
the state -- including the military -- accused of a number of
political murders and attacks designed to trigger an eventual military
takeover.
The trial is seen as a historic opportunity for Turkey to confront for
the first time a phenomenon coined here as the `deep state' and
generally used to refer to highly influential individuals and groups
nested within the state hierarchy manipulating the political and
social environment in the country, typically through illegal and
illegitimate means, although definitions of the phrase vary
significantly from person to person.
The suspects, 46 of whom are currently under arrest, will be appearing
before a judge for the first time in 17 months since the investigation
started following the accidental discovery of a house being used as an
arms depot in Ä°stanbul.
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 the deep state.
The Ergenekon investigation is not the first time dark elements have
surfaced from the `depths' of the state, but it certainly is the first
time so many suspects are going to stand trial before the entire
nation.
The closest Turkey came to overcoming the powerful friends of the deep
state in the judiciary and the police was the Susurluk affair of 1996,
when the relationship between a police chief, a Kurdish deputy who led
an army of men from his family clan armed by the Turkish state
fighting against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and an
internationally sought mafia boss was fully exposed.
The three were in a Mercedes that was involved in an accident in the
town of Susurluk, killing the mafia boss and the police chief. The
deputy survived but said he had no memory of the crash and did not
testify in the course of the investigation. The scandal exposed, as
never before, the extent of the state's links to organized crime, but
those implicated in the case refused to testify. Nor could they be
subpoenaed by the judiciary. Despite public outcry and protests
against deep state links around the country, the case was soon covered
up and forgotten.
Nine years later, a bombing against a bookshop owned by a Kurdish
nationalist in the southeastern town of Å?emdinli, during which
two members of the Turkish security forces were caught red-handed,
gave Turkey another chance to shed light on at least some of the
elements of the complex deep state network. However, the prosecutor on
the case was disbarred by the Supreme Board of Prosecutors and Judges
(HSYK) after indicting the land forces commander of the time as being
the founder of a gang that was responsible for the Å?emdinli
bookstore bombing. The three main suspects -- two non-commissioned
officers and a PKK informant -- were given nearly 40 years each by a
civil court at the end of a lengthy trial process that lasted close to
two years. However, the Supreme Court of Appeals in May of this year
declared the case a mistrial and ordered the suspects be retried by a
military court.
Notes from the Ergenekon indictment
The indictment, made public in June, claims Ergenekon is behind a
series of political assassinations over the past two decades. Close to
90 suspects will stand trial starting Monday. The victims of alleged
Ergenekon crimes include secularist journalist UÄ?ur Mumcu, long
believed to have been assassinated by Islamic extremists in 1993; the
head of a business conglomerate, Ã-zdemir Sabancı, who was
shot dead by militants of the extreme-left Revolutionary People's
Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) in his high-security office in 1996;
secularist academic Necip HablemitoÄ?lu, who was also believed
to have been killed by Islamic extremists, in 2002; and the 2006
Council of State attack.
The indictment also says retired Gen. Veli Küçük,
believed to be one of the leading members of the network, had
threatened Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist slain by a
teenager in 2007, before his murder -- a sign that Ergenekon could be
behind that murder as well.
The Ergenekon indictment accuses 86 suspects of links with the
gang. Suspects will begin appearing in court on Oct. 20 to face
accusations that include `membership in an armed terrorist group,'
`attempting to destroy the government,' `inciting people to rebel
against the Republic of Turkey' and other similar crimes.
20 October 2008, Monday
TODAY'S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL
20 October 2008, Monday
Ergenekon case: Trial of the century starts today
Journalist and Kanaltürk founder Tuncay Ã-zkan was taken
into custody in September at his home in Ä°stanbul as part of
the Ergenekon investigation.
Today marks the start of the landmark trial of 86 individuals
suspected of membership in Ergenekon, a crime network with links to
the state -- including the military -- accused of a number of
political murders and attacks designed to trigger an eventual military
takeover.
The trial is seen as a historic opportunity for Turkey to confront for
the first time a phenomenon coined here as the `deep state' and
generally used to refer to highly influential individuals and groups
nested within the state hierarchy manipulating the political and
social environment in the country, typically through illegal and
illegitimate means, although definitions of the phrase vary
significantly from person to person.
The suspects, 46 of whom are currently under arrest, will be appearing
before a judge for the first time in 17 months since the investigation
started following the accidental discovery of a house being used as an
arms depot in Ä°stanbul.
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 the deep state.
The Ergenekon investigation is not the first time dark elements have
surfaced from the `depths' of the state, but it certainly is the first
time so many suspects are going to stand trial before the entire
nation.
The closest Turkey came to overcoming the powerful friends of the deep
state in the judiciary and the police was the Susurluk affair of 1996,
when the relationship between a police chief, a Kurdish deputy who led
an army of men from his family clan armed by the Turkish state
fighting against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and an
internationally sought mafia boss was fully exposed.
The three were in a Mercedes that was involved in an accident in the
town of Susurluk, killing the mafia boss and the police chief. The
deputy survived but said he had no memory of the crash and did not
testify in the course of the investigation. The scandal exposed, as
never before, the extent of the state's links to organized crime, but
those implicated in the case refused to testify. Nor could they be
subpoenaed by the judiciary. Despite public outcry and protests
against deep state links around the country, the case was soon covered
up and forgotten.
Nine years later, a bombing against a bookshop owned by a Kurdish
nationalist in the southeastern town of Å?emdinli, during which
two members of the Turkish security forces were caught red-handed,
gave Turkey another chance to shed light on at least some of the
elements of the complex deep state network. However, the prosecutor on
the case was disbarred by the Supreme Board of Prosecutors and Judges
(HSYK) after indicting the land forces commander of the time as being
the founder of a gang that was responsible for the Å?emdinli
bookstore bombing. The three main suspects -- two non-commissioned
officers and a PKK informant -- were given nearly 40 years each by a
civil court at the end of a lengthy trial process that lasted close to
two years. However, the Supreme Court of Appeals in May of this year
declared the case a mistrial and ordered the suspects be retried by a
military court.
Notes from the Ergenekon indictment
The indictment, made public in June, claims Ergenekon is behind a
series of political assassinations over the past two decades. Close to
90 suspects will stand trial starting Monday. The victims of alleged
Ergenekon crimes include secularist journalist UÄ?ur Mumcu, long
believed to have been assassinated by Islamic extremists in 1993; the
head of a business conglomerate, Ã-zdemir Sabancı, who was
shot dead by militants of the extreme-left Revolutionary People's
Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) in his high-security office in 1996;
secularist academic Necip HablemitoÄ?lu, who was also believed
to have been killed by Islamic extremists, in 2002; and the 2006
Council of State attack.
The indictment also says retired Gen. Veli Küçük,
believed to be one of the leading members of the network, had
threatened Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist slain by a
teenager in 2007, before his murder -- a sign that Ergenekon could be
behind that murder as well.
The Ergenekon indictment accuses 86 suspects of links with the
gang. Suspects will begin appearing in court on Oct. 20 to face
accusations that include `membership in an armed terrorist group,'
`attempting to destroy the government,' `inciting people to rebel
against the Republic of Turkey' and other similar crimes.
20 October 2008, Monday
TODAY'S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL