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DEEP STATE GANG PLANNED TO KILL PAMUK
Today's Zaman
Jan 25 2008
Turkey
Since the detainment earlier this week of dozens of members of a
crime gang, part of a shadowy network that masterminded many attacks
in Turkey whose perpetrators have not been found, an investigation
into the gang has revealed more of the group's plans, newspapers
reported on Thursday.
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 Ýstanbul
Police Department's counterterrorism unit in Ýstanbul 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 Ýstanbul's Umraniye 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 Turk, Leyla Zana and Sebahat Tuncel; Diyarbakýr
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 Kucuk, who was detained in Tuesday's raid, had
contacted through Muhammed Yuce -- a former army sergeant -- Ret.
Col. Fikri Karadað, requesting he find them a hit man to do the job.
Karadað 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 Diyarbakýr
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 Kucuk, Karadað and
Yuce were also detained in Tuesday's operation.
An unresolved murder resolved?
Police have found evidence linking the Ergenekon gang to the
assassination of Necip Hablemitoðlu, 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 Ýzmir businessman questioned over the Hablemitoðlu
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 Oz, who is leading the Umraniye 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 Yýldýrým and Muzaffer Tekin, who were detained in the initial
stage of the Umraniye 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.
Ýstanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah even stopped when he saw the
names the investigation was leading to, but Oz did not stop. Mr. Oz
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 Kucuk, 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 Kerincsiz, who filed countless suits against Turkish writers
and intellectuals who were at odds with Turkey's official policies;
Fikret Karadað, a retired army colonel; Sevgi Erenerol, the press
spokesperson for a group called the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate;
Guler Komurcu, 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 Karadað. 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 (MÝT) 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 Ýstanbul." 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. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman
--Boundary_(ID_ttIFE6DmQBXMI+Od5shj7g)--
Today's Zaman
Jan 25 2008
Turkey
Since the detainment earlier this week of dozens of members of a
crime gang, part of a shadowy network that masterminded many attacks
in Turkey whose perpetrators have not been found, an investigation
into the gang has revealed more of the group's plans, newspapers
reported on Thursday.
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 Ýstanbul
Police Department's counterterrorism unit in Ýstanbul 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 Ýstanbul's Umraniye 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 Turk, Leyla Zana and Sebahat Tuncel; Diyarbakýr
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 Kucuk, who was detained in Tuesday's raid, had
contacted through Muhammed Yuce -- a former army sergeant -- Ret.
Col. Fikri Karadað, requesting he find them a hit man to do the job.
Karadað 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 Diyarbakýr
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 Kucuk, Karadað and
Yuce were also detained in Tuesday's operation.
An unresolved murder resolved?
Police have found evidence linking the Ergenekon gang to the
assassination of Necip Hablemitoðlu, 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 Ýzmir businessman questioned over the Hablemitoðlu
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 Oz, who is leading the Umraniye 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 Yýldýrým and Muzaffer Tekin, who were detained in the initial
stage of the Umraniye 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.
Ýstanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah even stopped when he saw the
names the investigation was leading to, but Oz did not stop. Mr. Oz
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 Kucuk, 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 Kerincsiz, who filed countless suits against Turkish writers
and intellectuals who were at odds with Turkey's official policies;
Fikret Karadað, a retired army colonel; Sevgi Erenerol, the press
spokesperson for a group called the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate;
Guler Komurcu, 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 Karadað. 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 (MÝT) 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 Ýstanbul." 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. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman
--Boundary_(ID_ttIFE6DmQBXMI+Od5shj7g)--