However, he did not respond to questions as to who pressured him to carry out the attack. According to Arslan, he was also forced to carry out the hand grenade attack at the Cumhuriyet daily in 2006.
“There was pressure [on me] at the time. The Council of State shooting and the Cumhuriyet bombing occurred under pressure,” Arslan said. “I always regretted the attacks but could not express my regret. I did not want to do anything against the laws. I respect laws. I regret what I did in the past,” Arslan added.
His remarks came on Monday during the 167th hearing of the case into Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal organization accused of working to overthrow the government.
Dozens of suspected members of Ergenekon are currently in prison pending trial. The case into the Council of State shooting was merged with the Ergenekon case in 2008.
In the meantime, strategist İsmail Yıldız, an Ergenekon suspect, also spoke to judges in the same trial about the Council of State shooting and claimed that retired noncommissioned officer Oktay Yıldırım was behind the 2006 shooting at the Council of State.
Oktay Yıldırım is also an Ergenekon suspect. Yıldız is the founder of the Social Research and Strategy Development Center (SESAR). “The man who pulled the trigger in the Council of State attack is Oktay Yıldırım, and Yıldırım’s real name is Osman,” he said.
