Ergenekon author convicted, court says Ergenekon is a myth

Ergenekon is a shadowy crime network and an illegal, neonationalist deep-state organization which has been linked with many murders committed in the last two decades and many other acts of crime.

The court, however, in its opinion, refuted the claims against the Ergenekon organization, a shady network of criminals with links to the state bureaucracy and the military, allegedly plotting a coup against the government. In its opinion, the court stated that Ergenekon is an epic story of the great Turkish nation. Çakır, in his books, has tried to associate individuals killed fighting terrorism with criminal organizations. He has made abstract accusations using an ongoing criminal court case. The opinion also stated that many of the allegations mentioned in the Ergenekon indictment, which is being heard in a makeshift court in Silviri, are also figments of the imagination. Çakır commented that Ergenekon, as a terrorist organization, was described as such by none other than the İstanbul chief prosecutor. He said that the Şişli court's opinion encroached on the ongoing Ergenekon investigation in Silviri. He also said he will appeal the decision, which he said was rendered hastily and without much attention paid to his work.

The existence of Ergenekon has long been suspected, but the current investigation into the group began only in 2007, when a house in İstanbul's Ümraniye district that was being used as an arms depot was discovered by police.

The indictment, made public in July, claims that the Ergenekon network is behind a series of political assassinations carried out over the past two decades for the ultimate purpose of triggering a military coup and taking over the government. The victims include secularist journalist Uğur Mumcu, long believed to have been assassinated by Islamic extremists in 1993; the head of a business conglomerate, Özdemir Sabancı, who was shot dead by militants of the extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) in his high-security office in 1996; and secularist academic Necip Hablemitoğlu, who was also believed to have been killed by Islamic extremists in 2002.