Ümit Sayın: ÇYDD, ÇEV are parts of Ergenekon’s civil society network

On Monday, Ümit Sayın, one of the key defendants in the case, said in response to a question from the prosecution that the Contemporary Education Foundation (ÇEV), the Social Economic and Social Research Foundation (TESAV), the Atatürkist Thought Association (ADD), ÇYDD and the Türkiyem [My Turkey] group were civil society organizations that acted in parallel with a group inside the military plotting a coup d’état.

Several ÇYDD members were briefly detained in April as part of the ongoing investigation into Ergenekon. Sayın also stated that he regrets having penned neo-nationalist articles and disowned the core ideology of the Ergenekon group. He said those generals whom he had met through his students at military academies told him that a secret grouping inside the military existed.

He shared information about the group’s members in the military and academia as well as their regular meetings, saying he would like to make use of the “active repentance law,” which reduces or nullifies jail sentences of suspects who cooperate with investigators and provide information on the relevant group they are charged with being connected to. Sayın testified in a semi-closed session on Monday after all other suspects were taken out of the courtroom. Observers and journalists, however, remained in the chamber.

Prosecutor Nihat Taşkın asked Sayın: “In your testimony you state you are innocent, and ask for an acquittal, but you are now testifying to make use of the active repentance provision. If you are innocent, what is it that you are repenting?” Sayın said: “If it is a crime, I regret having written a large number of articles along neo-nationalist lines. But I don’t think these articles constitute a crime.”

When the other defendants were brought back in, they were given the opportunity to question Sayın about his testimony, which was read to them by the presiding judge.

In his testimony, Sayın said that in jail, he overheard two Ergenekon suspects -- Mehmet Demirtaş and Oktay Yıldırım -- worrying out loud that the police might figure out that hand grenades used in a 2005 attack belonged to them. On this, Yıldırım said Sayın and he had written in the past for the same Web site, where they had personal conflicts, because Sayın “was fooling the readers.” Yıldırım also asked Sayın if he remembered being told to leave by him while the two were out smoking in the prison courtyard. Sayın replied that never happened, to which Yıldırım said, “Well I think there is a misunderstanding here because I told you to get out of my face using very vulgar language.” Yıldırım said he had no other questions, saying it was no coincidence that Sayın’s testimony came after three former force commanders testified to Ergenekon prosecutors on Saturday, but did not elaborate.

Demirtaş said he had no questions for Sayın, using an adage that can be roughly translated as “Shame on those who place their hopes in the lowly type.”

In Tuesday’s trial, Yıldırım continued his remarks on Sayın’s testimony. He said he appreciated Sayın for leaving the organization and taking the side of the state. He also claimed that Ergenekon suspect and jailed leader of the Workers’ Party’s (İP) Doğu Perinçek had asked him to change his earlier testimony in exchange for “help” from the İP. Perinçek, who was also in the courtroom, interrupted Yıldırım, saying, “Lies, these are lies.”

In earlier testimony Yıldırım said he had taken hand grenades used in an attack at the Cumhuriyet daily in 2006 from retired Capt. Muzaffer Tekin and retired Gen. Veli Küçük, who are both jailed suspects in the case. Yıldırım is the number one suspect in the 2006 attacks on the Cumhuriyet daily as well as an attack at the Council of State which left a senior judge dead.

Also on Monday, Emin Gürses, a former deputy who currently shares a cell with Sayın, claimed that Prosecutor Zekeriya Öz had threatened Sayın, and that’s why he was testifying. Gürses also demanded that Sayın be acquitted.