Eighty-six people accused of links with Ergenekon to stand trial in Turkey Oct. 20

PanARMENIAN.Net - Eighty-six people, accused of creating an armed terrorist group to overthrow the government, will go on trial on October 20. A Turkish court agreed on Friday to hear the controversial Ergenekon case, accepting the 2455-page indictment.



The first hearing of the case will be held on October 20 at a prison complex in Silivri town of Istanbul because of the large number of defendants.



The indictment said the investigation led the officials to a terrorist organization named Ergenekon, which has not been the subject of any criminal case previously and which has different objectives and activities when compared to other terrorist organizations.



"It has been determined that the nearest goal of the organization is to carry out activities that will cause governmental weakness in the country and to create a chaotic atmosphere that will spoil the public order, moreover, as a final goal, the organization aims to make people approve an unlawful attempt to be carried out against the government in such a chaotic atmosphere and to take over the government through an unlawful intervention," the indictment said.



Prosecutors accuse so-called Ergenekon gang of at least two violent acts initially blamed on Islamists - the 2006 bombing of a secularist newspaper and an armed attack on a top court the same year in which a senior judge was killed.



The group is also accused of planning to assassinate some prominent Turks in the past few years, including the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, army chief Gen. Yasar

Buyukanit, 2006 Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, pro-government journalist Fehmi Koru and some pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) officials.



The indictment added the gang is not linked to the Turkish armed forces and National Intelligence Agency (MIT).



The long waited indictment was submitted only two weeks ago, although the Ergenekon case started 13 months ago with the discovery of grenades in a house in Istanbul's Umraniye district.



The lack of the indictment in the operation, and the detainment of anti-AKP politicians, journalists and intellectuals without any legal charge raised eyebrows in Turkey, as many questioned whether the operation is being used to suppress opponents of the ruling party.



Apart from the 86 already indicted, about 20 other people, including two retired four-star generals, a popular journalist and a prominent businessman, are awaiting charges, some of them in prison.



An additional indictment would be prepared for those detained in the sixth wave of the operation in July 1, including Kemalist Thought Association Chairman Retired Gen. Sener Eruygur, Retired Gen. Hursit Tolon and Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO).

 

The film director Halis Yavuz Isiklar, who had been also taken into custody in the same wave, was released late on Friday by the Istanbul court.

 

Turkish public is divided over the issue, even some question whether such organization exists or it is just a cover to suppress the opposition.

 

The extent of the operation had widened since the closure case against the AKP filed in March. Although the closure case and the Ergenekon case are separate legal processes, Erdogan had linked the two cases saying the closure case against the AKP was filed due to the government's determination in the Ergenekon case, Hurriyet reports.