9 November 2009 / TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES , İSTANBUL
Aydınlık Editor-in-Chief Deniz Yıldırım and the intelligence chief of Ulusal TV station, Ufuk Akaya, were detained on Saturday as part of the Ergenekon case and are accused of wiretapping the prime minister’s telephone.
Several days ago, security forces also searched the houses of the two detained journalists along with the offices of Ulusal TV and the Aydınlık journal due to Aydınlık’s Oct. 13 issue, which published a the telephone conversation transcript between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) leader Mehmet Ali Talat in 2004.The cover of the journal quoted Erdoğan saying, “He has finished,” referring to the former KKTC president, Ruaf Denktaş, during his conversation with the incumbent KKTC leader.Akaya and Yıldırım were detained because they were accused of “listening to the telephone conversation between KKTC President and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.” Claims that Ergenekon defendant Atilla Uğur ordered others to wiretap Erdoğan in 2004 were mentioned in the Dost Tarikatı (Friend Islamic Order) report prepared by Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriyya Öz. Dost Tarikatı leader İhsan Güven and his wife were killed in May 2004, and seven people have been detained in connection with the murder. The Dost Tarikatı case is believed to have links with the Ergenekon case. The latest development has again put Ergenekon’s “listening capabilities” on the agenda. It was also revealed that Ergenekon members sought to find better means of wiretapping individuals than what security forces possessed.
