Prosecutors in a landmark case over the investigation into Ergenekon, a criminal network suspected of plotting a coup against the government, have uncovered striking links between the gang and some key outlawed groups behind decades of bloody and provocative acts.
An İstanbul court on Friday agreed to hear the case over the investigation into Ergenekon, in a move that will kick off the trial process for dozens of suspected gang members, including retired army officers, academics, journalists and businessmen.
Prosecutors in the Ergenekon investigation have demanded that retired Brig. Gen. Veli Küçük, Cumhuriyet daily columnist İlhan Selçuk, Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate press spokeswoman Sevgi Erenerol, former İstanbul University Rector Kemal Alemdaroğlu and Workers’ Party (İP) leader Doğu Perinçek — believed to be leaders of the gang — each be sentenced to two consecutive life sentences and an additional 164 years. These five suspects will face various charges, including, but not limited to, “establishing a terrorist organization,” “attempting to overthrow the government of the Republic of Turkey by force or to block it from performing its duties,” “inciting the people to rebel against the Republic of Turkey,” “openly provoking hatred and hostility,” “inciting others to stage the 2006 Council of State shooting,” “attacking the Cumhuriyet daily’s İstanbul office with a hand grenade” and other similar crimes.
The almost 2,500-page-long Ergenekon indictment has revealed serious connections between Ergenekon and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) and the Turkish Hizbullah (no relation to Lebanon-based Hezbullah).
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by a large majority of the international community, including the European Union and the United States, uses northern Iraq as a base from which to make attacks on Turkish soil. Turkey blames the PKK, which is fighting for an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey, for the deaths of 40,000 people over the past 25 years.
The PKK has been behind many provocative attacks, some of which have been claimed by the organization itself, while others have been claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a PKK-affiliated group known largely for its terrorist attacks in big cities. A destructive explosion last year was set off by the PKK in Ankara. A powerful explosion in front of the Anafartalar shopping mall in the capital’s busy Ulus district during rush hour killed 10 and injured more than 100 on May 22, 2007.
In October police forces averted a disaster in Ankara at the last minute after finding a van packed with explosives near a multistory parking lot. The van was loaded with hundreds of kilograms of explosives. PKK involvement in that incident had also been confirmed.
The DHKP/C is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union and has claimed responsibility for a number of assassinations and bombings since the 1970s. The organization was originally formed in 1978 by Dursun Karataş.
“It is being understood — from evidence in the investigation file, the interrogations and the documents that have been seized — that Küçük, one of the leaders of the Ergenekon terrorist organization, had a close relationship with the DHKP/C terrorist organization, used it in line with the goals and targets of the Ergenekon terrorist organization and kept it under control,” the indictment alleges.
Turkish Hizbullah is a Kurdish, Sunni fundamentalist organization that arose in the late 1980s in southeastern Turkey. In the early 1990s, when the Turkish government’s conflict with the PKK was at its most fierce, Hizbullah began attacking suspected PKK sympathizers.
“Pseudo-terrorist organizations should be established,” says a document allegedly belonging to Ergenekon and included in the indictment. The same document notes that Ergenekon doesn’t aim at destroying certain terrorist organizations, but at taking them under control and using them for its own purposes.
The indictment includes testimonies from two confidential witnesses who had previously been in PKK camps. According to their testimonies, the coup against the elected civilian government on Sept. 12, 1980, which installed a military-civilian cabinet while proclaiming martial law, was announced beforehand to the outlawed PKK. Upon receiving this information, the PKK warned its members through brochures it published and made them flee abroad in groups while and bury its weapons beneath its shelters.
One witness, codenamed “Deniz,” provided information about meetings between Ergenekon and intelligence officers of from other countries and explained that the now-jailed founder of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, left Turkey before the 1980 coup because he had been informed about it beforehand.
Deniz said journalist Yalçın Küçük, also a suspected member of Ergenekon, went to Damascus to meet with Öcalan in 1993 and 1996. He explained that the Küçük guided Öcalan in his armed activities. Stressing that Küçük was like Öcalan’s brain, the witness said in 1996 it was Küçük who saved Öcalan from an assassination in Damascus.
Deniz added that Hizbullah members were trained at the Gendarmerie Command. A reporter who took photographs of this training was later killed, the witness said.
Perinçek is among the founders of the PKK
In the indictment, it is claimed that İP leader Perinçek, who is currently under arrest, often met with Öcalan in Bekaa Valley and that he was among the founders of the PKK. The report also highlights an exchange of views between Perinçek and Öcalan’s attorneys.
In a classified document prepared by Capt. Ceyhan Karagöz on Oct. 25, 1994, it is said that the PKK was founded on Oct. 27, 1978 in the village of Ziyaret in the eastern province of Diyarbakır by 25 people, including Öcalan and Perinçek.
There are other documents indicating a relationship between Perinçek and the PKK. A letter addressed to Perinçek found at the house of journalist and Tuncay Güney, who now lives in Canada and works as a rabbi, a witness in the Ergenekon investigation, features a PKK seal and reads: “In our hard struggle, it is impossible to express your sacrifice and contributions in political, economic and arms-related terms with words. The Kurdish community, which has been exploited and exposed to the massacres of fascist Turkish armies, needs brave people like you who are respectful to human rights, struggle in the war for freedom and support our party without any reservations. … In the periods ahead, our party will be honored to cooperate with people like you. Revolutionary greetings.”
The indictment also reveals that Güney said shipments of weapons to northern Iraq were also related to Perinçek.
Zaman: Today’s Zaman, 28 July 2008
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