İstanbul's 13th High Criminal Court on Monday began hearings in the trial of 22 suspects who are implicated in a case regarding the establishment of several websites that were allegedly part of a propaganda campaign against civilian groups such as the Gülen movement and the government on behalf of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). The case was merged with the case against retired Col. Dursun Çiçek's suspected Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, a military plot aimed at the government. Seven suspects are being tried in the latter case.
Ethem, serving as a village guard in Erzincan, claimed that army officers were engaged in dialogue with herders in the mountains. He said he once accompanied a group of commanders as they went to a mountain near the border between Tunceli and Erzincan provinces with a military convoy of trucks filled with ammunition. He said while he and others accompanying the commanders waited in a safe place on the mountain, the commanders continued to drive up the mountain. “The commanders didn't visit the village guards who were stationed higher up the mountain. We suspect they gave ammunition to the herders on the mountain. These herders are known to help the PKK,” Ethem said.
He further stated that he once attended an army target practice with Murat Başçavuş, the commander of a military post in Erzincan, at a place where they had not previously gone. The soldiers just left the grenades that had not been exploded during the exercise strewn about the premises.
The secret witness said one of his relatives, who served in the Third Army Corps Command, told him that Turkey would be on the brink of being divided in 2012 and that the army would then stage a coup. He earlier delivered statements during a hearing in the trial against Ergenekon, a criminal organization allegedly involved in acts of terrorism, in Erzincan.
Arrested suspects including retired Gen. Hasan Iğsız, active duty general Mehmet Eröz, retired Col. Fuat Selvi, Lt. Gen. İsmail Hakkı Pekin, Maj. Gen. Hıfzı Çubuklu, Vice Adm. Mehmet Otuzbiroğlu and Rear Adm. Alaettin Sevim appeared in court during Monday's hearing. Retired Col. Ziya İlker Göktaş surrendered to the court 34 days after an arrest warrant was issued. With the arrest of Göktaş, the number of suspects arrested in the case of the Internet propaganda campaign against the government increased to 12.
Meanwhile the 33rd hearing of the case of Çiçek's plot was heard on Tuesday. Hasan Ataman Yıldırım, a suspect both in the website case and in the second Ergenekon trial, and three suspects released pending trial appeared for the hearing. Arrested suspect Çubuklu's lawyer Ünal Güllüoğlu said the websites suspected of disseminating anti-government propaganda had been officially launched by the military and that they were legal. He said his client approved the launch of the websites. Güllüoğlu said if there is anything illegal about these websites, it falls under the jurisdiction of military justice.
