Turkish nationalists accused of plotting coup d'état in 2009

PanARMENIAN.Net - A large number of documents clearly showing the hierarchical structure of the group have also been seized in the recent operations. The organization's manifesto and even organizational charts showing the hierarchy of the group, future plans and lists of agencies the organization plans to infiltrate are among the documents Prosecutor Zekeriya Oz has already been through. According to a report from the Hurriyet daily, some members of the Ergenekon network were in the past active members of Hizbullah.



The suspects detained in Tuesday's operation included Veli Kucuk, a retired major general who is also the alleged founder of an illegal intelligence unit in the gendarmerie, the existence of which is denied by officials; controversial ultranationalist lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, who filed countless suits against Turkish writers and intellectuals who were at odds with Turkey's official policies; Fikret Karadag, a retired army colonel; Sevgi Erenerol, the press spokesperson for a group called the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate; Guler Komurcu, a columnist for the Aksam daily; and Sami Hostan, a key figure in the Susurluk investigation. Ali Yasak, a well-known gangster linked to the figures in the Susurluk incident, was also detained in the operation.



A police investigation into a neo-nationalist gang believed to be the extension of a clandestine network of groups with members in the armed forces has discovered that the group was plotting to stage a coup against the government in the year 2009 and that suspects so far apprehended are only the collaborators of the real plotters in the military, Turkish newspapers reported on Friday.



The investigation into the gang, 33 of whose members were taken into police custody earlier this week as part of an investigation into an arms depot found in Istanbul in June of last year, has exposed solid links between an attack on the Council of State in 2006, threats and attacks against people accused of being unpatriotic and a 1996 car crash known as the Susurluk incident, which revealed links between a police chief, a convicted ultranationalist fugitive and a member of Parliament as well as links to plans of some groups in Turkey's powerful military to overthrow the government.



The gang is a part of a structure named Ergenekon, declared a terrorist organization by the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office, an aggregation of many groups of varying sizes, many of which have in their names adjectives such as "patriotic," "national," "nationalist," "Kemalist" or "Ataturkist." Ergenekon is the name of a legend that describes how Turks came into existence.



The investigation has found that the Ergenekon phenomenon, also referred to as Turkey's "deep state," stages attacks using "behind-the-scenes" paramilitary organizations to manipulate public opinion according its own political agenda.



The investigation has so far found that the Ergenekon organization had plotted to kill Turkey's Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk and other public figures to drag Turkey into chaos to create the perfect environment for a coup - not unlike the atmosphere of the pre-1980 period, which ended with a violent military takeover - that was to be staged in 2009. Evidence so far also suggests that 700 kilograms of explosives found loaded on a van in Istanbul belonged to this gang, which is also supposed to have plotted the assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, Turkish media reports.