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ISTANBUL: State dirty laundry might come out with `cosmic room'

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  • ISTANBUL: State dirty laundry might come out with `cosmic room'

    Sunday's Zaman, Turkey
    Jan 3 2010


    State's dirty laundry might come out with `cosmic room' search

    The search at the Special Forces Command's headquarters is the first
    ever police raid on a military facility in Turkey. Although the
    civilian prosecutors were met with great resistance, the historic
    search still went ahead.

    There is an air of expectation as the country awaits the outcome of
    the investigation into the `cosmic room.' Nobody has an answer to the
    question of what's inside the cosmic room.

    But most observers are clear on one thing: The search is an important
    first in the country's history because it touches untouchables, and
    this might help to explain some of the most painful events of the
    past.
    `What is cosmic?' political analyst DoÄ?u Ergil asked during our
    Sunday's Zaman interview. `There are three types of secrets: secret,
    top secret and cosmic, which are very, very secret.'

    He explained that a state can keep top secret and cosmic information
    in order to protect a country's interests from external enemies.

    `But when the state considers a part of society to be the `enemy' and
    there are top secret lists about what needs to be done against that
    enemy, then that is a serious case,' he said, `because a country
    cannot have top secret acts against its own people.'

    So, what are these acts, and who might be the people that the state
    could consider to be the enemy?

    Part of the answer to these questions lies in the nature of the
    civilian search of the `cosmic room' which comes under the General
    Staff's Special Forces Command and the Tactical Mobilization Group
    (STK). The searches at the STK in Ankara's Kirazlıdere district are
    the first ever police raids on a military facility in Turkey. Although
    the civilian prosecutors were met with strong resistance, they have
    still undertaken a historic search.

    The Kirazlıdere command was where politicians, including Bülent
    Ecevit, Necmettin Erbakan and Alparslan TürkeÅ?, were kept under arrest
    during the Sept. 12, 1980 coup d'état. There also used to be a US base
    at the location at that time. The Kirazlıdere headquarters is believed
    to be where clashes between leftist and rightist groups before the
    1980 coup were masterminded and coordinated.

    `There are unresolved tragic and bloody events in the past like the
    one on May 1, 1977, and the killings in Ã?orum, Sivas and MaraÅ?, and
    the Sept. 6-7 incidents in 1955, plus assassination attempts against
    then-prime ministers Bülent Ecevit and Turgut Ã-zal,' Ergil said.

    He was referring to the May 1 events at the time when unknown
    perpetrators opened fire from a hotel on a crowd gathered in Taksim
    Square for May Day celebrations, killing 36. Evidence submitted to a
    court in 2008 as part of the indictment against Ergenekon, a shady
    network accused of having plotted to overthrow the government,
    suggests that the network was behind the incident.

    When it comes to the Sept. 6-7, 1955 events, it is sometimes referred
    to as being the first Gladio-type action, a code name denoting the
    clandestine NATO stay-behind operation in Italy after World War II,
    intended to counter a possible communist invasion of Western Europe.
    Turkey's Ergenekon is believed by some to be the last surviving
    version of Gladio.

    The unfortunate events of Sept. 6-7 started after a newspaper headline
    said Atatürk's home in Greece had been bombed by Greek militants.
    Fired up by the media, mobs killed and harassed non-Muslim,
    non-Turkish minorities in a massive campaign.

    Ergil indicated that the events might have been plotted by the Special
    Warfare Unit. This argument was further strengthened because retired
    Capt. Fikret Emek, currently under arrest in connection with the
    Ergenekon investigation, was serving as chairman of the Military
    Mobility Investigation Board during the events. According to the
    allegations, the board was illegally established within the army in
    1952 and created small cells to promote its cause.

    Gen. Sabri YirmibeÅ?oÄ?lu, who confessed to then-Prime Minister Bülent
    Ecevit that the Special Warfare Unit existed, served on the board
    during the Sept. 6-7 events.

    Back to Ergil's reference to the Ã?orum, Sivas and MaraÅ? massacres,
    these provinces were ethnically vulnerable, and provocations led to
    many deaths as a result of Alevi-Sunni clashes.

    `Military has to open its doors'

    The case started with a plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister
    Bülent Arınç on Dec. 19, when police detained a colonel and a major
    who work for the STK, as their car had been seen several times passing
    by Arınç's residence in the capital of Ankara.

    They were released, but the Turkish media reported that they were
    suspected of plotting to assassinate Arınç.

    Chief of General Staff Gen. Ä°lker BaÅ?buÄ? and Land Forces Commander
    Gen. IÅ?ık KoÅ?aner met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an on Dec.
    26. The search of the STK archives was allowed to proceed after this
    meeting, although the content of the meeting has not been shared with
    the press.

    `If this investigation had not been conducted, the military could have
    been divided,' Ergil said. He said it is because there was already a
    division: pro-Ergenekon investigation forces against pro-NATO forces.

    `The military has been mentally divided. It had to open its doors to
    the judiciary,' he added.

    Another view supporting this idea came from Faik TarımcıoÄ?lu, a former
    military prosecutor and judge and an ex-Motherland Party (then-ANAP,
    now ANAVATAN) deputy in the '80s. He argues that the search has been
    realized with the agreement of the General Staff and the government.

    `The search would not be possible if the government and the military
    were not in agreement. This is in a way an announcement to eliminate
    Gladio,' he said.

    Fikri SaÄ?lar, a member of the parliamentary commission set up to
    investigate the Susurluk incident, which revealed connections and
    cooperation between the police, politicians and criminal gangs, said
    the recent search is a positive move in Turkey's struggle to become a
    state adhering to the rule of law.

    `In the 1950s, Turkey accepted many NATO decisions and harbored a
    Gladio-type organization, sometimes referred to as counter-guerilla,
    in the name of the war against communism,' he told Sunday's Zaman.
    `But it did not get rid of its illegal group like the European
    countries did in the 1990s.'

    SaÄ?lar said the country learned about the counter-guerilla's extensive
    role in the making of the Sept. 12, 1980 coup from a book written by
    Gen. Kenan Evren, who led the coup. Evren assigned the Special Warfare
    Unit to eliminate the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of
    Armenia (ASALA) terrorist organization, which was responsible for the
    murders of several Turkish diplomats, but it looked for other options
    for survival after accomplishing its mission.

    So the unit decided to deal with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
    after 1985. But it went out of control and became corrupt because of
    the involvement of some of its members in illegal activities in the
    Southeast, including drug trafficking and arms smuggling. Even the
    state officially admitted after the Susurluk accident that the unit
    was corrupt. European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings confirmed
    the unit's involvement in illegal activities and some unsolved murders
    during the fight against terror.

    SaÄ?lar said that parliamentary commissions prepared excellent reports
    about plots staged by shadowy actors in Turkey but that political
    administrations have failed to implement their recommendations.

    Is it going to be different this time?

    `The important thing is that it is out in the open and that some
    documents called state secrets can be inspected by the judiciary,'
    SaÄ?lar said. `The civilian authorities could have done it before, too,
    but they didn't exercise their authority before.'

    That's why the country is wondering what is happening, and there is
    surprise, he said.

    `But there shouldn't be, because the rule of law can settle in only
    with the equality of all citizens, civilian or military, before the
    law.

    Meanwhile, all eight soldiers detained in the investigation into the
    alleged conspiracy to assassinate Arınç were released on Tuesday
    night. Among those released were three colonels who will face trial
    over their role in the alleged conspiracy.

    In related developments, the commander of the STK applied to
    prosecutors, calling for a press ban on the search under the Code on
    Criminal Procedure (CMK), Article 125, which calls for similar
    measures in relation to state secrets. However, the Ankara 12th High
    Criminal Court rejected the appeal on Tuesday.

    Turks have been watching to see if there is any follow-through this
    time, having seen other probes into alleged plots drag on without any
    clear resolution.

    TarımcıoÄ? lu said it is not realistic to expect a swift elimination of
    Gladio-type organizations in Turkey. `There needs to be patience. But
    in one year or 10, there will be elimination at the end,' he said.



    03 January 2010, Sunday
    YONCA POYRAZ DOÄ?AN Ä°STANBUL
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