Turkey shocked by allegations in Ergenekon indictment

16/07/2008

A group of retired Turkish soldiers and hard-liner nationalists face charges of belonging to an alleged "terrorist network" that aimed to oust the Islamist-rooted government.

By Ayhan Simsek for Southeast European Times -- 16/07/08

The organisation's aim was "destroying state authority", Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin said. [AFP]

The indictment against the shadowy Ergenekon group went to court Monday (July 14th), following a 13-month-long investigation. The indictment covers charges against 84 suspects. An additional indictment to follow will include charges against 20 other suspects detained early this month. Retired four-star generals Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur, the latter of whom chairs the Ataturkist Thought Association, are the alleged leaders of the group.

Turkey's secular opposition claims the government-backed case is "revenge" for the ongoing closure case against the Islamist-rooted ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the Constitutional Court. Both cases deepened Turkey's worst political crisis in decades.

The 2,455-page Ergenekon indictment remains confidential, but information leaked to the press includes sensational claims about recent events in Turkey.

Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin said on Monday that alleged Ergenekon members face charges of "inciting others" to commit several assaults, including last year's Council of State shooting and a hand grenade attack at the secular daily Cumhuriyet's Istanbul headquarters.

Observers initially attributed those incidents to radical Islamist militants, portraying them as symptoms of a greater threat of Islamism in the majority-Muslim but secular country. Earlier press reports on Ergenekon alleged it had links to the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, though this did not appear in the indictment.

Engin said the suspects belonged to an "armed terrorist group" that reporters identified as Ergenekon. "The terrorist organisation mentioned in the indictment is not a separatist or ideological organisation in the classic sense," Engin said. But still, it is defined as a "terrorist group" under Turkish law.

The investigation started last year, when police discovered a house full of ammunition and guns in Istanbul's Umraniye district. Police first detained a group of low-ranking veterans and members of a criminal organisation, but the operation expanded to include hard-line nationalist and secular politicians, journalists and other suspects, after Turkey's chief prosecutor asked the Constitutional Court to shut down the ruling AKP, on the grounds that it was undermining Turkey's secular system.

The AKP denies influencing the judiciary on the case but makes no secret of backing the probe.

The indictment claims that Ergenekon, allegedly under the control of some retired generals and with links to active troops, aims at becoming the real power in Turkey. Prosecutors say Ergenekon has far-flung cells, including media personalities and assassins, but that those cells have no contact with each other and receive instructions from the top. The indictment claims Ergenekon has tried to develop chemical and biological warfare and was behind drug trafficking in Turkey.

Despite these sensational claims, prosecutors have yet to advance evidence of connections between known criminals under arrest and the other suspects, namely, the ex-generals, politicians and journalists known for strong opposition to the Islamist-rooted government. Prosecutors say they have around 20 witnesses who will testify while having their identities protected.

Eruygur is accused of preparing several failed attempts at a military coup during and after his term as the commander of the gendarmerie forces between 2002 and 2004. The general also faces charges of plotting violent attacks and assassinations this year to provoke a military overthrow of the AKP government.

The detained ex-generals insist they have done nothing illegal or against the interests of Turkey, and the Turkish armed forces deny any link to Ergenekon.

Despite the crisis, for some liberal thinkers, the process is an important step in strengthening Turkish democracy. "This is the start of a new period in Turkey," argued Ali Bayramoglu, a writer for the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper. "In a country where we had two direct and two indirect military interventions, now for the first time retired generals are brought into court for preparing coups," he said.

But not all pundits share Bayramoglu's view. A leftist writer and Ankara University scholar, Türker Alkan, believes that the probe reflects a power struggle between secularists and Islamists rather than a move towards higher democratic standards.

"In history, there is no example of a coup by retired generals," Alkan wrote for his column in the Radikal daily. "And neither domestic nor international conditions ... could justify a coup in today's Turkey."