 |
Ergenekon subgroup dealt big blow
The detentions came as a serious blow to the Ergenekon terrorist organization, which is accused of planning a military coup against the government. Ergenekon is known to have close links to a number of outlawed groups, including the Turkish branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Yesterday's detentions were mainly in Konya, Kocaeli and Şanlıurfa, along with İstanbul and Ankara. Police said they confiscated a number of documents linking the suspects to the fundamentalist group. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an extremist group seeking to reinstate the Islamic caliphate.
The suspects were sent to the counterterrorism unit in Ankara's police department for interrogation. According to police sources, the organization was preparing for a number of terrorist attacks to heighten tension in the country. The operations came in the wake of a police investigation of more than six months. Some of the suspects shouted: “Allow us to tell the truth. Democracy will be abolished. Shariah rule will come,” as they were taken into custody.
POLICE DETAIN NEARLY 200 SUSPECTS IN FUNDAMENTALIST, TERRORIST HIZB UT-TAHRIR SWEEP |
Hizb ut-Tahrir was founded in 1953 in Jerusalem by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, an Islamic scholar. Since then the organization has spread to more than 40 countries and by one estimate has around 1 million members. The close ties between Hizb ut-Tahrir and Ergenekon were exposed in the second Ergenekon indictment. Dozens of Ergenekon suspects are currently standing trial, including retired and active duty military members, businessmen and journalists.
According to the Ergenekon indictment, Ergenekon leaders used terrorist organizations in Turkey from all backgrounds, worldviews and political ideologies for their ultimate aim to create chaos in the country, which they hoped would make it easier to realize their ultimate goal of triggering a military intervention.
The evidence suggests that the group had links with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), the fundamentalist organization Hizbullah, the ultranationalist Turkish Revenge Brigade (TİT), the Turkish Workers' and Peasants' Liberation Army (TİKKO), the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) and the Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Several other suspected members of Hizb ut-Tahrir have been arrested in the past across Turkey on charges of being members of an outlawed organization and planning bloody attacks against civilians.
The group has been undergoing a restructuring for some time, which compelled police to closely monitor its suspected members. The Turkish branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir is mainly based in İstanbul's Bahçelievler district.
Police said the group was planning to stage a large attack in İstanbul on the anniversary of the abolishment of the caliphate. The Ottoman caliphate was abolished by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey, on March 3, 1924, following the establishment of a secular state.
The group's members in Turkey reportedly paid frequent visits to Indonesia, where they attended seminaries and conferences on the group's structure and principles.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| The modern ‘Great Game’: women’s role and status | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
| KATHY HAMILTON |  |
||
| Random acts of violence | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| Adding insult to injury in Uludere | |||
| NICOLE POPE |  |
||
| Shifting responsibility | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| ‘Errorism’ | |||
| ORHAN MİROĞLU |  |
||
| ‘Strategic vision’ | |||
| ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ |  |
||
| Turkey through Amnesty International’s eyes | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
