TURKEY ‘COUP PLOTTERS’ FACE CHAOTIC SCENES IN COURT
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Daily Telegraph
9:43PM BST 20 Oct 2008
UK
Dozens of opposition activists accused of seeking to bring about the
collapse of the Turkish state went on trial in Istanbul yesterday as
their supporters massed in the streets in protest.
Chaotic scenes surrounded the opening of the trial of 86 people
including high-ranking officials alleged to be involved in a
conspiracy designed to create social turmoil. Prosecutors unveiled
a 2,500-page indictment that detailed activities that ranged from
murder and terrorist plots to schemes to plant black propaganda in
popular newspapers.
However the trial was quickly adjourned as the court was overwhelmed
by sympathisers who sought to disrupt the proceedings.
The alleged conspirators include a retired general, the leader of a
small Leftist and nationalist party, a newspaper editor, a best-selling
author and a former university dean. Two more retired senior generals
have been questioned in connection with the plot.
Prosecutors said that the ultimate aim was to depose the Islamic AK
party, which has ruled Turkey since 2003. The conspirators were said
to believe the party was bent on destroying Turkey’s secular state
system, which replaced the theocratic Ottoman empire in 1923.
One defendant spoke out against the charges as a politically inspired
charade. "An imaginary group has been invented," Muzaffer Tekin,
a retired army captain, told the judges. "I see this as a political
plot."
The existence of the so-called "deep state" underground plot has held
the public in thrall for months and judges were forced to suspend the
opening session after the courtroom on the outskirts of Istanbul was
mobbed. The plotters are alleged to have adopted the name, Ergenekon,
from a legend of a lone wolf of the Central Asian steppe and the
leitmotif of Turkish nationalism.
Although senior military figures were said to be central to the plot,
the group also allegedly planned the assassination of the chief of
the Turkish general staff. But it was Turkish minorities that are
said to have suffered most. Posing as radical Islamists, the group
was said to have carried out the murders of prominent Christians,
including the ethnic Armenian writer Hrant Dink, a Roman Catholic
priest and a group of missionaries.
The prosecution also alleges the suspects planned to kill the prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Nobel literature laureate Orhan
Pamuk and prominent Kurdish politicians.
Human rights campaigners welcomed the trial as an opportunity to expose
the powerful position of groups with military links and strengthen
the country’s democracy, which has been interrupted by four coups
since the country was established.
"This case gives Turkey a chance to make clear that it will hold
security forces accountable for abuse," said Benjamin Ward of Human
Rights Watch.
"But that can only happen if the investigation follows the evidence
wherever and to whomever it leads."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
