ANKARA: Zirve Massacre Suspect: Ergenekon’s Armed Wing Still Active

ZIRVE MASSACRE SUSPECT: ERGENEKON’S ARMED WING STILL ACTIVE

Today’s Zaman
Oct 18 2012
Turkey

A suspect standing trial in the Zirve Publishing House massacre
case has told the court that the National Strategies and Operations
Department of Turkey (TUSHAD), the armed wing of the Ergenekon
crime network, is still active and continues to plot attacks against
non-Muslims.

Suspect İlker Cınar, who was heard by the Malatya 3rd High Criminal
Court on Wednesday, told the court that TUSHAD, a clandestine
organization within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), is behind the
attacks against non-Muslim minorities and Christians and that it is
the armed wing of Ergenekon.

Ergenekon is a shadowy crime network which has alleged links within
the state and is suspected of plotting to topple the government.

The Zirve Publishing House massacre concerns the brutal killing of
three Christian publishers based in Malatya in 2007, which led to an
outrage in the country.

Cınar was heard by the court after he sent a petition to the court
saying that there are things he would like to tell.

He said he testified to former Ä°stanbul Specially Authorized Chief
Prosecutor Zekeriya Oz on Dec. 24 and Dec. 28, 2010 and March 14, 2011
as a secret witness in the case with the codename “Deniz Uygar.” He
said his statements to the prosecutor led to the discovery of TUSHAD
and individuals against whom he filed criminal complaints being put
in jail.

According to the indictment in the Zirve massacre, TUSHAD was
established in 1993 by former four-star Gen. HurÅ~_it Tolon on
instructions from the illegal Ergenekon organization while Tolon
was serving as secretary-general of the General Staff. The 761-page
indictment lists 19 suspects and was accepted by the Malatya 3rd
High Criminal Court earlier this year. In the additional indictment,
Tolon — also a key suspect in the Ergenekon investigation together
with retired Col. Mehmet Ulger, a former Malatya gendarmerie regiment
commander, and Maj. Haydar YeÅ~_il — stands among the accused.

According to the prosecutors, the Zirve massacre was carried out by
the Malatya cell of TUSHAD.

Indicating that TUSHAD is a clandestine organization nested in
state institutions, Cınar said: “There is this structure behind the
reprehensible attacks against non-Muslims and Christians and it is
never the state. TUSHAD is the armed wing of Ergenekon.”

Cınar also noted that he joined the White Forces Command, which
is linked to TUSHAD, in late 1993 and was briefed on missionary
activities.

“My instructor was Levent Ersöz [a general who is a prime suspect
in the Ergenekon case]. I received orders from this person. I met
missionaries and socialized with them. I am a Muslim. I did not adopt
Christianity. I conveyed all the intelligence I gathered to TUSHAD
through couriers who came to me,” he said.

Cınar also told the court that he learned from retired Col. Mehmet
Ulger, the former commander of the Malatya Provincial Gendarmerie
Command, during a workshop that an attack would be carried out against
the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya, but he did not know that it
would include the killing of the publishers.

“If I had understood that murder [of the publishers] was intended
in this attack, I would have done what was necessary to prevent it,”
he added.

Cınar said he was invited to Malatya following the murder, but
that when he criticized the attack, Ulger threatened him, saying:
“The Zirve, Hrant and Santoro [killings] are operations. The Zirve
incident will be attributed to the AKP [Justice and Development Party
government] and the Gulen movement with fake intelligence documents.”

The Zirve massacre was preceded by other attacks against non-Muslim
figures in the country. Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was killed in
Trabzon in February 2006, while Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink
was killed in January 2007, both incidents that horrified the country,
sparking debate about the safety of non-Muslims in Turkey.