KEY ERGENEKON SUSPECT SAYS MILITARY HIRED HIM
Hurriyet
Jan 13 2009
Turkey
ISTANBUL – A former police chief and suspect in the trial of the
alleged Ergenekon gang told an Istanbul court Sunday that the military
had called on him to form a 300-strong anti-terror team and collect
information on Armenians in Turkey.
Ä°brahim Å~^ahin, who had previously been convicted of forming and
heading a criminal gang in 2000, used to be the acting head of the
anti-terror squad in the 1990s and was convicted when his illicit
relations with the mafia came to light during the Susurluk scandal. Of
the 33 people detained last Wednesday, Å~^ahin was one of 17 to be
charged by the court over the weekend.
Among those charged along with Å~^ahin, were socialist writer Yalcın
Kucuk, two colonels, one retired colonel and two lieutenants, as
well as former Higher Education Board, or YOK, president Kemal Guruz,
retired generals Kemal Yavuz and Tuncer Kılınc and the son of former
Istanbul Mayor Bedrettin Dalan.
The charges involve membership in a criminal gang accused of
plotting to overthrow the government. The media has called the
gang Ergenekon, which comes from a legend of the same name. As the
legend goes, pre-Islamic Turks were able to recuperate from a heavy
defeat to overcome their enemies under the guidance and cunning of
a gray wolf. Most of those arrested or charged are known for their
nationalistic sympathies.
The Ergenekon case started after the discovery of 27 hand grenades
in June 2007 in a shanty house in Istanbul’s Umraniye district that
belonged to a retired noncommissioned officer. The grenades were
found to be the same as those used in the attacks on Cumhuriyet
daily’s Istanbul offices in 2006.
The findings led to scores of detentions, putting more than 100
journalists, writers, gang leaders and politicians under arrest. The
alleged gang is accused of trying to instigate the military to topple
the government in 2009 by initially spreading chaos and mayhem.
The earlier bombings of daily Cumhuriyet, the murder of journalist
Hrant Dink, the murder of a top judge of the Council of State and
the alleged plans for the assassination of high-profile figures in
Turkish politics are sometimes associated with the case.
The list of detainees includes retired generals Å~^ener Eruygur and
HurÅ~_id Tolon and retired Maj. Gen. Veli Kucuk. Many detainees
are retired officials who gathered in associations linked to the
ultra-nationalist Kuvayi Milliye (National Forces) Ä~^ a reference
to irregular forces that led the Turkish war for independence back
in the early 1920s.
Å~^ahin says it is his official duty Å~^ahin, in his testimony to
the prosecutors and the court over the weekend, said he was invited
to a meeting with the Chief of General Staff three months ago by
Lieut. Gen. Bekir Kalyoncu, the current commander of the seventh corps
based in Diyarbakır in the southeast. There he was told to form a
300-strong anti-terror team and would be appointed undersecretary
of a new intelligence department. "I prepared a list of 300 former
anti-terror officers and that is the list found in my home," Å~^ahin
told the court.
He was told to conduct an investigation on Armenians in the central
Anatolian Sivas and Kayseri provinces.
When asked about his relationship with another suspect, Fatma Cengiz,
he said Cengiz had given him intelligence about Armenians working
for the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP.
He also denied ownership of the map found in his home that led police
to a large buried weapons cache. "If it is checked, you will realize
the writing on it is not mine," he said. If it were up to him, he
would not have hidden the weapons in GölbaÅ~_ı, where it was found,
but in less conspicuous Elmadag nearby.
Å~^ahin was seen as one of the rising princes of Mehmet Agar, a former
police chief and interior minister, and was appointed as the acting
head of the police anti-terrorism squad in 1993.
He established the police department’s Special Forces School, graduates
of which formed the basis of later anti-terror squads.
After the Susurluk accident in November 1996, when a right-wing
mafia leader, a police chief and a former beauty queen died and a
parliamentarian was severely injured, his descent began. The Susurluk
scandal showed illicit links between the mafia, police and politicians,
with Å~^ahin’s anti-terrorism squad implicated.
Newspapers later printed photos of Å~^ahin together with the fugitive
right-wing militant and mafia boss Abdullah Catlı, who died in
the accident.
He was suspended and then investigated for protecting anti-terror
squad members implicated in the murder of Omer Lutfu Topal, who owned
gambling establishments, and the kidnapping of National Intelligence
Agency, or MİT, officer Tarık Umit.
When a court ordered his arrest, he fled before surrendering and then
serving six months in jail. He was released in September 1997.
He was again charged in March 1999 in connection with weapons given
to the police department that had gone missing.
In 2000, he was severely injured in a traffic accident and he was still
in hospital when he was sentenced to a year in jail for dereliction
of duty.
He was also found guilty in the so-called Susurluk case, found guilty
of forming and leading a criminal gang together with former MÄ°T
member Korkut Eken, each being sentenced to six years in jail.
He was pardoned in August 2002 due to bad health. There were also
photos of him showing his close relationship with retired Maj. Muzaffer
Tekin, who is also currently being tried in connection to the so-called
Ergenekon gang.
Eken, a former MÄ°T member and retired lieutenant colonel, told
daily Hurriyet over the weekend that he could not understand how an
experienced person could leave the map of a weapons cache at home to
be found.
Eken, who worked as a teacher at the Special Forces School in the
1990s, also said the weapons found by police were not linked to the
missing weapons in the Susurluk case. "Those were sent overseas for
an operation. There were 10 guns. However, with the advent of the
Susurluk case, we couldn’t bring the weapons back."
He said he still could not understand why Å~^ahin was convicted and
sentenced to six years in the Susurluk case. He served 2.5 years in
jail before being released.
PM defends probe
Last October, 86 people went on trial, accused of belonging to a
terrorist organization and of plotting to topple the ruling Justice
and Development Party, or AKP, government. The trial will expand to
include suspects retired generals Eruygur, and retired Major Gen. Kucuk
and the others.
The probe initially received support for countering the so-called
"deep state," a term used to describe security forces acting outside
the law, often in collusion with illegal factions, to protect what
they see as Turkey’s best interests.
But the probe’s credibility has been increasingly questioned after
it began targeting journalists, academics, intellectuals and retired
generals who are all known to be vocal government critics. Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday called on the Republican
People’s Party, or CHP, which has been critical of the probe, to let
investigators do their work. "There are in this country magistrates
and prosecutors who have a free conscience," he said. "Nobody should
think of themselves above justice," he told a party meet.
Cicek denies
Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said yesterday he had no knowledge of
Ä°brahin Å~^ahin being offered to head the new anti-terror department.
In response to questions during a remembrance ceremony held
in Parliament for former Labor Minister Necati Celik who died
Sunday, Cicek said: "That’s his testimony. We can’t know if it
is true." Å~^ahin told a court that senior military officers had
approached him three months ago.
They asked him to form an anti-terrorism squad and told him that
he would head it, Å~^ahin said. Cicek, spaeking after a Cabinet
meeting two weeks ago, said the government would be forming a new
anti-terrorism department. The Office of the Chief of General Staff
released a statement yesterday, dismissing Å~^ahin’s claim that the
military had offered him the head of the new anti-terror department.
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