The trial of 56 people, including two senior retired generals, has begun. They are accused of crimes including the preparation of four separate abortive coup plans in 2003 and 2004, one of which was planned for this year. This year's planned coup is believed to have been averted after the start of the Ergenekon investigation two years ago when hand grenades were found in the İstanbul suburb of Ümraniye in June 2007.
Around 85 suspects, including a retired general, are being tried in the first Ergenekon trial that began in October of last year over charges of violating the constitutional order by planning a coup to topple the government.
The second trial is expected to cover four separate abortive coup attempts, with retired generals Şener Eruygur and Hurşit Tolon accused of being members of Ergenekon. The suspects in the second Ergenekon trial are implicated, among other things, in the Council of State attack in 2006, which left one judge dead, and a bomb attack at the Cumhuriyet daily headquarters in 2006.
The trial began amid demonstrations staged in Istanbul in support of the Ergenekon trial. The trial and the ongoing investigation -- where approximately 200 suspects are either in jail or awaiting trial -- have severely divided the nation. Senior retired four star generals as well as some active lower ranking officers have been indicted. In Turkey the armed forces have been involved in politics and staged five different sorts of coups since 1961
About five thousand demonstrators urged the Supreme Board of Prosecutors and Judges (HSYK) not to replace the case's current prosecutors and judges as a sign of public sensitivity against attempts to foil the Ergenekon trial.
The serious polarization in the country over the Ergenekon trial has revealed the alleged grave crimes committed by the “deep state”, including the assassination of senior figures such as academics, journalists and Kurds as well as plans to end parliament's existence. These crimes and others raise concerns over whether Turkey will finally be able to rid itself of corrupt relationships.
An article published on February 9 last year by Christopher Deliso and ran by www.balkananalysis.com under the headline “Deep State Coup Averted in Turkey” discusses the creation of counter guerilla organizations within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) initially to prevent the communist invasion but later evolved into a group targeting its own citizens.
Here are some excerpts from Deliso's article on Ergenekon that will help the readers to understand better the deep state in Turkey:
- “The police had been investigating the group for the past few years, compiling in the process a dossier of some 7,000 pages. The current operation was sparked following a police raid in Istanbul this past summer, which recovered weapons (and some low-ranking military men). But the big fish, including two retired generals, were only caught in the recent police operation. While it seems to have been a major victory for the government and for Turkey in general, many have expressed cynicism that a completely thorough investigation will ever be accomplished. Because the case involves high-ranking officials from the military – that self-appointed guarantor of Turkey's secular, constitutional order – ‘it remains to be seen whether the cases will be brought to trial,' states the Guardian”
- “We do, however, know where it started – and why. Indeed, it is more than a bit ironic that the major recurring threat to society and political stability in Turkey over the past 60 years, the "Deep State," was actually enabled by the country's Western allies, and firstly, America. After WWII and with the creation of NATO, the military alliance created ‘secret armies' throughout Europe, consisting of so-called ‘stay behind' forces, charged with waging sabotage campaigns and resistance in the case of a Soviet invasion.”
- “ However, they became prone to corruption, interference with domestic politics and society and were in some cases involved with brutality against Leftists and the citizenry in general. While the most famous of NATO's secret armies was the Gladio Operation in Italy, it was arguable in Turkey that this dangerous policy had the most serious long-term consequences, with the creation of a stay-behind force known as the Counter-Guerrillas.”
- "…one looking for Ergenekon needs not go too far. This is the story of Ergenekon – the Turkish Gladio – from the assassination of [journalist] Abdi Ipekçi [in 1979] to 'the massacre of March 16' [in 1978, when seven students at an Istanbul university were killed in a bomb attack], then peaking in Susurluk and possibly involved in the Council of State shooting [of a senior judge in 2006]."
- "…a plot to kill Turkey's only Nobel Prize-winning author, Orhan Pamuk, was also among Ergenekon's plans. Newspapers printed transcripts of recorded phone conversations between Spc. Sgt. Muhammed Yüce, Ret. Col. Fikri Karadag and Selim Akkurt, the trigger-man hired to do the job, whose phones were tapped with a court order. “
- “Aside from keeping foreign policy leverage and ensuring defense industry cooperation, there might be a third reason why there was not wide support in the Turkish establishment, either civilian and military, for a coup, though at bottom it does have importance for watchers of Turkey's deep state activities. This is the planned participation of Turkey (along with other American allies in the Middle East and North Africa) in an American-led program, to create nuclear power plants as a means for alleviating energy strain and dependence on oil. On 22 January, as the Ergenekon arrests were happening in Turkey, Washington announced that the country would get the green light to go ahead with the program.”
Deliso's article also contains some other interesting points related to Turkish deep state activities.
But in the final analysis, one of the basic conditions for the success of the Ergenekon trial is for prosecutors to have access to the military files that are not even shared with the political authorities. This will be a tough job.
