ERGENEKON HAS LINKS TO OUTLAWS, SAYS JAILED HEAD
Hurriyet
Feb 16 2009
Turkey
ANKARA – Sakık, who has spent the last 11 years in prison, tells
Parliament’s Human Rights Commission that the alleged Ergenekon gang
has links to groups like the PKK, Hizbullah and the Revolutionary
People’s Liberation Party/Front
A former leader of the terrorist PKK organization, has claimed a
criminal network exists between the alleged Ergenekon gang, PKK,
Hizbullah and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front,
or DHKP/C.
"There are tribal and gang leaders from the Southeast region
within Ergenekon. They will be unveiled soon," former PKK leader
and confessor, Å~^emdin Sakık, who has been in prison for 11 years,
told the members of Parliament’s Human Rights Committee. The committee
met with Sakık as part of an investigative study on the conditions
of Diyarbakır’s prisons.
According to the committee’s report, which was acquired by the Hurriyet
Daily News & Economic Review, Sakık said the leader of the Workers’
Party, or Ä°P, Dogu Perincek, who is currently in custody in the
Ergenekon case, had stayed in the prison with PKK leader Abdullah
Ocalan for a few days.
"Professor Yalcın Kucuk stayed with Perincek for months,"
Sakık said. Kucuk was detained within the Ergenekon case but later
released. A so-called supporter of Turkish nationalism and a so-called
supporter of Kurdish nationalism stayed in the same cell for months,
said Sakık. Sakık also said Kucuk delivered lectures in Beqaa,
a valley in eastern Lebanon where the PKK has camps.
Kucuk had confirmed his visit to Beqaa during his inquiry in the
Ergenekon investigation. "I went there to get data on the PKK for my
scientific studies," Kucuk said, adding that he already released his
observations on Beqaa in his book.
"PKK backed by other countries" During the interview with the Human
Rights Committee, Sakık also pointed to foreign support of the
PKK. "The PKK was born in Ankara, found supporters in the Southeast
and gained ground in Syria. Armenia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Greece have
used the PKK. Iran gave a truck full of weapons to the organization
in the spring of 1993," he said.
He said following the PKK’s cease-fire announcement in 1993, Iran
took those weapons back, claiming the weapons were given to the PKK
for fighting. "Greece gave a Stinger missile to the organization,"
the report also quoted Sakık.
"Although the PKK is supported by foreign powers, it was born in
Turkey. Its roots are in Turkey," Sakık said.
In relation to the conditions of the prison, Sakık complained about
his loneliness in the prison cell. "I wanted a friend but it was
rejected. I cannot stay with political prisoners in the same cell on
the grounds that I left the PKK," he said.
Sakık also said his letters were examined for a month by the prison
administration and that the administration tried to remove the 42nd
part of the book he wrote because of "inconvenient" elements.
Besides Sakık’s complaints and statements as a confessor, the
committee’s report also included views of other inmates about the
conditions of Diyarbakır prisons.
"Political female prisoners said they cannot participate in sports
due to security reasons and that they receive unfair disciplinary
punishments on the grounds that they make too much noise while they
are entertaining each other," the report read.
In the report, maltreatment allegations against child prisoners were
stated as well. A child, who was detained during the incidents in
the Cizre district of Å~^ırnak last year, said the Gendarmerie beat
and insulted them while they were being transferred to the prison in
Diyarbakır. The report also defined the physical conditions of the
prison cells for child detainees as "insufficient."
The former PKK members said they were pleased they could watch the
state-broadcast Kurdish channel, TRT 6. "However, even if it is legal,
we cannot buy the Kurdish newspaper Welat," the report quoted inmates
as saying.
The committee’s report said detainees and inmates should be informed
of their legal rights in detail. Pointing out that the number of
prisoners surpassed the capacity of the Diyarbakır prison with E-level
security, the report said the situation was "unacceptable in terms of
humanitarian living standards." Although the capacity is 744 people,
there are currently around 1,400 inmates and detainees in the prison.
According to the report, 1,000 prisoners attend literacy courses, 115
prisoners continue distance learning and 251 prisoners are pursuing
two-year undergraduate degrees in Diyarbakır D-level prison. The
prison also supplies English, computer, painting, math and chess
courses, which are currently attended by 406 prisoners.