The gang was plotting to kill Nobel Literature Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk and had already hired the hit man to do the job, the investigation found. Thirty-three suspects accused of being part of the gang, which calls itself Ergenekon, were detained by the İstanbul Police Department's counterterrorism unit in İstanbul and other parts of the country in dawn raids on Tuesday, the culmination of an eight-month operation. The police have been observing the actions of the suspects for three-quarters of a year as part of an investigation into a house full of explosives and ammunition found in a shantytown in İstanbul's Ümraniye district in the June of 2007.
The investigation has found that the gang is linked to a clandestine phenomenon referred to as the "deep state" in Turkey that stages attacks using "behind-the-scene" paramilitary organizations such as Ergenekon to foment public opinion according its own political agenda. Ergenekon is the title of a legend that describes how Turks came into existence.
This particular gang is suspected of involvement in a number of political attacks on individuals and institutions, including the murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. At least eight of the suspects are retired from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).
The suspects, who include retired military generals, journalists and underground bosses, have not yet been charged and are still under interrogation, but the police found a list of people the gang had planned to assassinate, including pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputies Ahmet Türk, Leyla Zana and Sebahat Tuncel; Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir; Nobel Prize-winning author Pamuk; and journalist Fehmi Koru, who is also a regular columnist for Today's Zaman.
Pamuk was their next target
Charges of denigrating Turkishness had once been brought against Pamuk over remarks he made to a Swiss newspaper about the number of Kurds and Armenians killed in Turkey. Pamuk was apparently the next planned assassination on the gang's list. According to daily Posta, Ret. Maj. Gen. Veli Küçük, who was detained in Tuesday's raid, had contacted through Muhammed Yüce -- a former army sergeant -- Ret. Col. Fikri Karadağ, requesting he find them a hit man to do the job. Karadağ is the leader of the ultranationalist Association for the Union of Patriotic Forces (VKGB), whose leaders are already under detainment facing several charges for crimes from theft and felony to blackmail and extortion. Also, at least two VKGB members were detained in relation to the Ergenekon investigation in Diyarbakır on Wednesday. The hit man they found was identified by the police as Selim A. The Ergenekon crowd found YTL 2 million -- the pay promised to Selim A. -- and a Glock revolver for the assassination. Selim A. was captured after the police found out about the plan by monitoring phone conversations. In addition to Selim A. and Küçük, Karadağ and Yüce were also detained in Tuesday's operation.
An unresolved murder resolved?
Police have found evidence linking the Ergenekon gang to the assassination of Necip Hablemitoğlu, shot to death in 2002 after concluding that residents of the Bergama region campaigning against gold prospecting in their area were manipulated by Germans protecting their economic interests, in a comprehensive study he conducted on the subject. An İzmir businessman questioned over the Hablemitoğlu murder as a key suspect was later killed by a hand-grenade thrown into his Alsancak office, which was allegedly the work of the gang to keep him silent. The businessman reportedly threatened the gang, saying he would confess if they failed to pay him the money they promised for the academic's assassination.
The man to lead the investigation
Various reports that appeared in Turkish newspapers on Thursday praised prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, who is leading the Ümraniye arms depot investigation, for his bravery. Daily Taraf said the main reason the Ergenekon suspects were able to be found was that the fearless prosecutor did not give up on following through on the investigation until the end, despite threats he received from retired TSK members Oktay Yıldırım and Muzaffer Tekin, who were detained in the initial stage of the Ümraniye investigation.
Taraf quoted a senior police officer as saying he is like a "kamikaze." The same source told the daily: "He would not have been able to take the investigation so far without solid evidence. İstanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah even stopped when he saw the names the investigation was leading to, but Öz did not stop. Mr. Öz is a fighter, and he believes in the supremacy of law. The prosecutor conducted a very lengthy investigation process. He spent days and nights at the police department."
Meet the gang members
The suspects detained in Tuesday's operation included Küçük, a retired major general who is also the alleged founder of an illegal intelligence unit in the gendarmerie, the existence of which is denied by officials; the controversial ultranationalist lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz, who filed countless suits against Turkish writers and intellectuals who were at odds with Turkey's official policies; Fikret Karadağ, a retired army colonel; Sevgi Erenerol, the press spokesperson for a group called the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate; Güler Kömürcü, a columnist for the Ak?am daily; and Sami Ho?tan, a key figure in an investigation launched after a car accident in 1996 near the small town of Susurluk that uncovered links between a police chief, a convicted fugitive who was an ultranationalist and a deputy. Ali Yasak, a well-known gangster linked to the figures in the Susurluk incident, was also detained in the operation.
Special Bureau chief also detained
Yet another suspect was taken into custody on Thursday as part of the Ergenekon operation. A man named Erkut Ersoy, who founded an organization called the Special Bureau Intelligence Group -- which according to Ersoy himself has submitted intelligence to certain state agencies since 1998 -- was detained. Ersoy is known to be a good friend of Karadağ. This unique organization is a private intelligence unit whose employees collect information as regular intelligence officers.
In an earlier interview with the press, Ersoy said that 756 people from a variety of fields, from students, doctors and housewives to lawyers, worked with the Special Bureau. Ersoy said that his organization was similar to the "White Forces," a special unit made up of civilian staff under the TSK's Special War Department. Ersoy also claimed the group had people from the Turkish General Staff and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) as well as police officers among its staff. He stated that they reported individuals or vehicles that seemed suspicious to the relevant authorities.
According to Ersoy's own description of this rather strange company, he set up the Special Bureau to solve problems his acquaintances from various official intelligence units would frequently talk about. "We said if there is such a demand, we should have it [this organization]. This is how we set up the group in İstanbul." Special Bureau agents say they fight every terrorist organization, particularly the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and against Armenian genocide allegations.
This unique structure is according to Ersoy not an alternative to the state's own sources of intelligence. "We are not rivals to them, nor do we desire to take on their duties. We are only supporting the state's security institutions. We help them to complete certain things faster and get results. Some people are afraid to apply directly to the police for their own reasons. We act as intermediaries. Soon we will set up a [hot] line to report crimes. All our work is done with the knowledge of the state's own intelligence agencies. They protect us. We wouldn't have been able to do this otherwise."
Ersoy also said their bureau was open to everyone who wanted to be recruited, as long as they were patriotic or sympathetic to nationalists. "We are a nationalist group, at the end of the day," he had said. İstanbul Today's Zaman
Benzer Haberler 
National
