The trial in Silivri, a suburb of İstanbul, of 86 people, 47 of whom are under arrest, including a retired general and other former officers of varying ranks, started last year on Oct. 20. The trial became possible when the court accepted a 2,500-page indictment prepared by the prosecutors. The indictment was released on July 25 of last year. Defendants stand accused of setting up a terrorist organization - called Ergenekon by some of the defendants -- to overthrow the government through the use of force.
They were charged with, among other things, either forming and being a member of a terrorist organization, or of inciting public unrest and encouraging the military to commit disobedience with the aim of toppling the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
The Ergenekon trial and the ongoing investigation into the organization is perceived by some in Turkey as a government scenario to take revenge on those seeking to unseat it from power.
However, the indictment revealed the existence of an entrenched ultranationalist terrorist organization not only seeking to overthrow the government but also working to create unrest in the country to maintain the status quo.
"Both the attached documents and wiretapping show that the Ergenekon terrorist organization has been engaged in secret operations within the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] and that there have been members of the organization within the TSK from the lowest to the highest ranking [officers]," the indictment said.
The Silivri trial has been investigating, among other things, that the suspects were in recent years behind a series of attacks or attempted attacks on prominent Turks, including then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and prominent Kurdish politicians. The investigation also blames Ergenekon for planning attacks against NATO installations in Turkey.
Some of the attacks Ergenekon is suspected of being behind include the 2006 attacks on the Council of State, wherein a judge was killed, and the staunchly secular Cumhuriyet daily, allegedly carried out by people impersonating Islamists.
The indictment also accused the Ergenekon network of being behind a series of political assassinations over the past two decades. The victims include a secularist journalist, Uğur Mumcu, long believed to have been assassinated by Islamic extremists in 1993; the head of a business conglomerate, Özdemir Sabancı, who was believed to have been shot dead by the extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) in 1996, and secularist academic Necip Hablemitoğlu.
The indictment charged the suspects with possessing explosives and arms as well as obtaining classified documents, provoking military disobedience, inciting hatred and abusing power. The investigation has uncovered questionable relations between Ergenekon and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), raising serious suspicions that Ergenekon might have played a role in inciting ethnic hatred between Turks and Kurds.
The operations against the alleged Ergenekon members were initiated following the discovery of an arms cache in a house in the Ümraniye district of İstanbul in June 2007.
I deliberately repeated some of the important parts of the indictment over which the Silivri trial has been continuing to refresh readers' minds about what the Ergenekon trial and investigation are about.
In addition to the ongoing trial, several former generals were either put in jail or released after a brief period of detention over their alleged links to Ergenekon.
But, some procedural problems concerning the investigation and the trial as well as some of the latest developments -- such as the release of former generals -- have already overshadowed the investigation and the trial.
A critical question that should be posed at this stage over the Ergenekon case is whether the basic principle of fair trial and the rule of law are being adhered to during this almost two-year-long process to unearth the activities of the deep state.
The insertion of some irrelevant documents into the indictment, which many legal experts said could have been shortened and could prepared in a more thoughtful manner as well as the recent and sudden release of former generals, have been among the elements that contributed to the Ergenekon case being overshadowed.
The release of retired Gen. Hurşit Tolon after being in prison for some seven months as well as the release of two other retired generals following a brief detention in the wake of the 10th wave of detentions in the Ergenekon investigation in early January has caused some raised eyebrows on the part of Turks. If, for example, Gen. Tolon was put in jail on grounds that he was allegedly among the masterminds of Ergenekon, why was he then recently released due to a lack of evidence?
Defendants in jail and some segments of society have begun to wonder whether the former generals were protected by the TSK and if the TSK played a role in their release.
The release of the generals came following extraordinary meetings that took place on Jan. 8 between Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ and President Abdullah Gül and Gen. Başbuğ and Prime Minister Erdoğan.
Reliable sources have told me that after meeting with Gen. Başbuğ, Gül was extremely nervous for almost two days. Another reliable source said Gen. Başbuğ had issued a veiled threat to Erdoğan during their meeting, suggesting that the prime minister use his influence to facilitate the release of the former generals.
Bearing in mind that the TSK has intervened into Turkish politics in five coups, it would come as no surprise if Gen. Başbuğ had indeed sent a veiled threat to the government.
