Head of high court should act on judge scandal, say lawyers

In a voice recording posted to a file-sharing website on Monday one speaker says he wants to see chaos in Turkey, as it would better serve their plans for the country. Another speaker says terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan could play a key role in increasing the number of “no” votes in the upcoming referendum on government-backed reforms.

The voices are allegedly those of judges Hamdi Yaver Aktan and Yusuf Uluç, the heads of the Supreme Court of Appeals' 8th Criminal Chamber and 8th Legal Chamber, respectively. At one point in the recording, the speakers say their contact with the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) was the reason behind that party's decision to boycott the referendum. A third person's voice, allegedly that of judge Fatih Aktan, is also heard in one of three recordings posted on the website dailymotion.com on Monday.

The harshest reaction to the voice recording came from Suat Kılıç, the deputy head of the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) parliamentary group. “The coalition of evil,” he said, referring to shadowy circles within the state establishment that have long been accused of plotting against the government, “has come to a point where they even find hope in walking arm in arm with the terrorist organization. We will not accept this disaster.”

Treating terrorists as possible accomplices constitutes a crime, says retired chief prosecutor Reşat Petek, who called on the Supreme Court of Appeals’ 1st Presidential Council and president to act.

“If such a recording had come out in a normal democratic country, the Supreme Court of Appeals members in question would have been dismissed from their offices immediately,” argued Cahit Özkan, head of the Jurists’ Association.

There have been accusations in the past few weeks against the AK Party government for allegedly having talks with Öcalan. Ayhan Gültekin, head of the Justice and Law Association, said it has now become clear who is actually negotiating with Öcalan. Constitutional law expert Mustafa Şentop said the upcoming referendum has become a matter of life and death for “those who thrive on the status quo and its maintenance.” “If a yes comes out of the referendum, they will lose their previous reputation. This is why they even need Abdullah Öcalan’s help,” he stressed.

Ergenekon, Öcalan work together

Meanwhile, the Yeni Şafak daily yesterday published an interview with a former lawyer for Öcalan, Ahmet Zeki Okçuoğlu, who said that the terrorist leader has been in contact with Ergenekon -- a clandestine gang that has been working to rule Turkey through behind-the-scenes operations, including bombings and assassinations. Hundreds of suspected Ergenekon members are currently in jail pending trial on charges of “attempting to overthrow the government by use of force.”

Okçuoğlu said Öcalan has always been in close contact with Ergenekon, or the “deep state,” as it is known in Turkey. Okçuoğlu told Yeni Şafak, “Apo [Öcalan] himself told me that he has been talking to the deep state, which he never stopped praising.”

He said a “shadowy” person he spoke to on the prison island of İmralı where Öcalan is being held had told him shortly after Öcalan’s capture in 1997 that Öcalan would not be executed. According to Okçuoğlu, the person said, “Don’t worry, this is actually a mock trial. We are talking here anyway. We’ll handle this in a short while.”

Okçuoğlu claimed Öcalan had ended a temporary cease-fire the PKK had announced in 2004 when a group of generals and Ergenekon were planning to stage a coup d’état. Countless documents on these coup plans -- named Sarıkız (Blondgirl) and Ayışığı (Moonshine) – are currently being studied by prosecutors and the judges hearing the trials of Ergenekon suspects. There are several separate but related trials into these incidents.

This is not the first time links between Ergenekon and the terrorist PKK have come to public attention. Numerous witnesses have attested to joint operations between the two groups, a well as contracted PKK operations carried out on behalf of Ergenekon, in court testimony.