In remarks published in various newspapers on Wednesday, Sunahanım Güven, married to former İstanbul Straits Commander retired Adm. İlker Güven, said her husband of eight years was the mole in the navy who provided some of the documents now held as evidence against retired and serving military officials being tried as suspected members of Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government. Retired Adm. Güven spoke to the Hürriyet daily yesterday, saying: “I was married to this person for five years. Two years ago, I filed for divorce due to her behaviors that humiliated my professional dignity. She was given 10 days in jail for threatening my life and insults.”
The General Staff announced yesterday that the Military Prosecutor’s Office has launched a probe to investigate the claims.
Meanwhile, Sunahanım Güven added new allegations to her initial claims. Speaking to the Vatan daily yesterday, she claimed that her husband was supposed to share some of the money he was paid in return for confidential documents with Metin Ataç, another retired admiral. However, she said she didn’t know if the money had been delivered to Ataç.
The couple is still officially married but in the midst of a lengthy divorce. The initiator of the divorce was Adm. Güven, who caught his wife with former minister Orhan Birgit at a VIP hall in an airport, as the two were traveling on March 8. Güven accuses them of having an affair. Güven told the Milliyet daily: “They [Sunahanım Güven and Orhan Birgit] are living as wife and husband. She even wears a ring. I am trying to find out where they live to present it in court. This is why she is doing these things,” he said.
Sunahanım Güven also accused the retired admiral of having her diamond jewelry worth $500,000 stolen from the couple’s house. İlker Güven said, “About the diamond burglary, the Kadıköy Prosecutor’s Office has already ruled that there is no need to investigate me.”
According to Hürriyet, İlker Güven first filed for divorce on July 4, 2008. Sunahanım Güven filed against the divorce. At that time, she created a scene by barging into her husband’s office, after which an Ankara court issued a restraining order banning her from approaching Güven. She was also banned from entering the courtroom by a judge, after which she filed a request for a new judge. The divorce case is now pending in a higher court. Sunahanım Güven is now being tried in four separate criminal trials for defamation, slander, invasion of privacy and threatening her husband.
