Turkey’s most powerful silent before Ergenekon murders

Turkey has been a country where assassinations of important public figures have been rife, with links between countless murders of journalists, writers, bureaucrats and judges to clandestine gangs such as Ergenekon clustered within the state hierarchy. Families, friends and affiliated organizations of the victim have also shared, in most instances, valuable information and striking evidence showing what kind of forces were at work behind the victim's death. However, one segment of society, the business world, has mostly chosen to remain silent in the face of compelling evidence. Companies, families and friends of important businessmen killed in assassinations that appear to be the work of shady groups within the state structure have refrained from even a single comment on factual evidence pointing to the real perpetrators behind the death of a loved one.

Last week, journalist Can Dündar claimed that Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) member Ali Suat Ertosun, who has been in the spotlight for wanting to remove prosecutors investigating the Ergenekon gang, could be linked to the death of one of the prime suspects in the murder of a prominent businessman.

In 1996, businessman Özdemir Sabancı was killed by gunmen on the 25th floor of the Sabancı Holding building in İstanbul, and this case has not yet been solved. Many mysteries surrounding his death -- including how the attackers could have gained access to the high-security building, let alone bring in machine guns -- have remained unsolved.

Three terrorists and members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), Fehriye Erdal, İsmail Akkol and Mustafa Duyar, were arrested. Erdal managed to escape to Belgium, where she is pending trial as a suspect at large. Akkol is also on the run while Duyar turned himself in that same year. There have been unconfirmed reports that the Interior Ministry adopted special legislation -- at a time when Turkey did not have a witness protection program -- which would have enabled Duyar, who had already shared information about the DHKP/C, to walk free in return for describing the details of the Sabancı murder. Duyar was killed in prison in 1999.

Last week, a very important piece of information was brought to light when journalist Dündar wrote that Duyar had wanted to talk before his death. Despite obtaining the necessary permission from then-Justice Minister Hasan Denizkurdu, Dündar was blocked from meeting with Duyar days before Duyar was killed. Dündar said it was none other than Ertosun who had prevented the interview from taking place. Now an HSYK member responsible for preparing an unofficial list of judges and prosecutors working on the Ergenekon trial who, he believes, should be transferred to new cases, Ertosun has been confirmed by Dündar as the person who, in his capacity as the head of prisons and detention centers, prevented the meeting with Duyar.

Journalist Can Dündar claims that Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors member Ali Suat Ertosun, who has been in the spotlight for wanting to remove prosecutors investigating the Ergenekon gang, could be linked to the death of Özdemir Sabancı.

Duyar was killed in prison days after his meeting with Dündar was denied. An interesting statement also came from Nuri Ergin, the man who killed Duyar. He said: “The state had Duyar killed. Ask Veli Küçük [currently under arrest as part of the Ergenekon case] about it.” He also said, addressing Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, “If you want to solve the Sabancı assassination, then ask why Ertosun showed such great interest in Duyar.”

Sabancı silence on Duyar

The Sabancı family has not yet commented on these recent developments. A corporate relations professional with the company told Today's Zaman yesterday she did not think the holding or the family would ever make a statement on the issue.

Journalist and researcher Avni Özgürel in a brief phone interview with Today's Zaman noted: “In all these murders, we see that the victim families do their best to discover who killed their relatives. Güldal Mumcu [wife of journalist Uğur Mumcu killed in 1993] is still struggling to find the real person behind her husband's death, the same thing for the family of [journalist] Abdi İpekçi. But with the Sabancı family and the Garih family, there seems to be no such effort.”

Indeed, most families, whose resources and power cannot be compared to that of the Sabancı family, dedicate a lifetime to finding the dark and invisible face behind the death of a loved one in this country of frequent assassinations and disappearances, but the Sabancı family, which spent a good deal of time and money on teams and an army of lawyers to locate Erdal in Belgium, has kept silent regarding the discussions and the likely possibility that Ergenekon ordered the death of Özdemir Sabancı.

A similar shroud of silence surrounded the Garih family and its partner İshak Alaton, owners of one of the country's top business empires, when a man who stabbed Üzeyir Garih to death in 2001 said last year that he had been first offered $1.5 million to claim responsibility for the murder and then threatened with the lives of his family and loved ones by individuals linked to Ergenekon. Yener Yermez, the man who was jailed for killing Garih in 2001, in a letter printed in a lead story in the Yeni Şafak daily last year said Ümit Sayın had offered him money to confess to the murder. Sayın is jailed as a suspected member of Ergenekon, a shady gang plotting to overthrow the government. There have been other incidents besides Yermez's letter suggesting that the Garih murder could be the work of Ergenekon.

Garih, a Jewish Turkish businessman, was found murdered in a Muslim cemetery in İstanbul's Eyüp district in August 2001. But why do some of the most powerful people in the country seem so reluctant to find the real cause of the death of one of their own? The reason could be fear, according to the only person who has spoken on the Garih murder, saying he did not believe this was the work of some insane young man.

Speaking to the press last year, family friend Doğan Kasadolu, a former senior executive at Alarko Holding, owned by Garih, said, "On the day of the murder, individuals in police uniforms kidnapped Garih's grandson and threatened the family not to dig too far into the assassination."

Kasadolu also appealed to prosecutor Nihat Taşkın, one of the prosecutors overseeing the Ergenekon case, regarding his allegations. In his petition to the prosecution, Kasadolu wrote that Doron Herzikowitz, Garih's son-in-law, had said his son was handcuffed and kidnapped on the day of the murder.

Hasan Celal Güzel, a former state minister, also agreed that fear might be an important factor. He told Today's Zaman: “I don't know about Garih, but I knew [Özdemir] Sabancı really well. I think these families, since they have too much too lose, do not want to talk. Imagine, when somebody's brother or father dies, they sometimes what to avenge that themselves, not that I condone that kind of thing. But these families, they cannot say anything because they have so much to lose. They just do not want to get involved. I cannot think of any other reason.”

According to Herzikowitz's account, as quoted in Kasadolu's statement, the individuals who kidnapped Garih's grandson, Tal Herzikowitz, warned the family not to delve too deeply into the investigation, threatening to frame Tal Herzikowitz, who was 14 at the time, for the murder. Kasadolu also told the prosecutor he was ready to testify as a witness in the Ergenekon trial. He asserted that the Garih family was for years too afraid to publicly speak out about the incident.

Did Garih refuse to pay?

Other allegations have confirmed the claims that Ergenekon orchestrated the 2001 murder of Garih because the victim had stopped his financial “donations” to the organization in 1995. According to a report also published in the Yeni Şafak daily in last December, an individual whose name was withheld said Garih was killed because he refused to finance a plot to overthrow the government of Azerbaijan. According to this witness, retired Brig. Gen. Küçük, a key Ergenekon suspect, was a relative of former Azerbaijani President Ebulfeyz Elçibey. Küçük frequently helped Alarko Holding with problems the company encountered in post-soviet Turkic countries in the region. In return, Garih, the company's CEO at the time, made regular "donations" to the Ergenekon organization. When the amount of donations eventually became too high, Garih's partner Alaton criticized the arrangement. Garih then cut off donations completely. This was at a time when the Ergenekon organization was trying to overthrow late Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev and reinstate Elçibey, who was ousted in 1993 in a coup d'état. According to this account, Ergenekon was collecting money for the Azerbaijan plan from businessmen, religious groups and other organizations. When Garih told a courier sent to collect his donation that he would no longer be financing the group, the decision to kill him was made. He had been warned two times after that date, the same person said.

According to the report, the coup attempt in Azerbaijan in 1995 was led by Col. Necabettin Ergenekon, from whom the group took its name. However, the coup failed when the Turkish president at the time, Süleyman Demirel, warned Aliyev about the plot.