2010
[ ERGENEKON CASE]
"Ergenekon" is the name given to a clandestine, ultra-nationalist organization in Turkey with ties
to members of the country's military and security forces. The group is accused of terrorism in
Turkey. Its agenda has variously been described as Anti-American, anti-EU and isolationist.
ERGENEKON CASE
The Clandestine Paramilitary Organization:
Biggest threat to the democracy in Turkey and to the
US-Turkish Relations
"Ergenekon" is the name given to a clandestine, ultra-nationalist organization in Turkey with ties to
members of the country's military and security forces. The group is accused of terrorism in Turkey. Its
agenda has variously been described as Anti-Americanist, anti-EU and isolationist.
Over a hundred people, including several generals, party officials, and a former secretary general of
the National Security Council, have been detained or questioned since July 2008. Hearings began on 20
October 2008, and are expected to continue for over a year. Commentators in the Turkish press have
called Ergenekon "the case of the century". According to the indictment of the trial against the
organization, the group's claim to legitimacy is that it allegedly protects national interests, which the
defendants believe are incompatible with the rule of the democratically elected government and are
harmed by Turkey's alleged concessions to the United States and European Countries, in short, West.
In Turkey, the extensions of the state—the establishment—that are considered responsible for this are
referred to as the "deep state".
Members have been indicted on charges of plotting to foment unrest, among other things by
assassinating intellectuals, politicians, judges, military staff, and religious leaders, with the ultimate
goal of toppling the incumbent government in a coup that was planned to take place in 2009. This
follows allegations published in a news magazine, Nokta, that several abortive coups with the same
intent were planned a few years ago. The proximate motive behind these false flag activities is said to be
to discredit the incumbent ruling party and derail Turkey's accession process to the European Union.
Several months after revealing the coup, the magazine was closed because of the military pressure. In
addition, through the judiciary system the clandestine organization is trying to expand the pressure on
the media with regard to the court case and trying to have journalists report against the case. Now
around 4,000 journalists are facing trials or investigations due to their reports on the Ergenekon case.
Turkey has already been through four (4)"successful" military coups since democratic elections were
first held in 1950. At the first coup d'état in 1960, the junta executed the first democratically elected
Prime Minister of the country, Adnan Menderes and two of his ministers. There were more coups in
1971, in 1980 and in 1997, with additional numerous attempted "un-successful" coups all through
these years.
Ergenekon's modus operandi has been compared to Operation Gladio's Turkish branch, the CounterGuerrilla. It has been said that the people who constitute the "deep state" are members of, or make use
of, this covert organization, which was established at the beginning of the Cold War to contain
communism.
Executive Summary
The Ergenekon investigation is a collaborative action taken by all criminal justice system’s agencies in
Turkey. It initiated with an anonymous phone call to Trabzon Gendarmerie’s tip line about that evidence
(explosives and weapons) in 2007. Trabzon Gendarmerie submitted the information to Istanbul
Gendarmerie. After that, Istanbul Gendarmerie and Istanbul Police Department jointly conducted
operation to apartment belonged to Yıldırım Yigit. The grenades and weapons found in that apartment
belonged to Oktay Yıldırım who is a retired noncommissioned army officer and he is currently under
arrest in relation to the case. According to Yigit, he was constantly threatened to not testify that the
explosives belonged to Oktay Yıldırım.
The Chief Prosecutor of Istanbul assigned a team leaded by prosecutor Zekeriya Oz to investigate this
organization. The team investigated the case for 16-month and prepared a 2,455-page indictment with
30 separate charges against the suspects including being a member of a "terrorist organization" illegal
possession of weapons, and provoking the public for armed insurgency against the Turkish
government. The Ergenekon case is now called the Turkish Trial of the Century. Even some said
Pandora's Box has been opened. Many believe that this trial will help people understand the entire
history of a Turkish Gladio. Majority of Turkish public is supporting the case because they believe that
this case will enhance the Turkey's democracy.
The organization was attempting to destabilize Turkey and produce support for a coup against the
government. Therefore, there are many charges against the suspects of this organization. They are:
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Membership in an armed terrorist group
Attempting to destroy the Turkish Government
Provoking people to rebel against the Government
Murder of Italian priest Father Andrea Santoro in February 2006
The attack on the State Council in 2006
The murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish Armenian
journalist, in 2007
Trying to assassinate prominent Turkish writer Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk
A shooting at the Council of State
A grenade attack on Cumhuriyet, a left-wing newspaper
Several attacks on priests in Malatya, a city of Turkey
Planning to assassinate Recep T. Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey
There are possible links between the Ergenekon and below listed terrorist networks
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Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
The extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C),
The Islamist organization Hizbullah,
The ultranationalist Turkish Revenge Brigades (TİT),
The Turkish Workers' and Peasants' Liberation Army (TİKKO),
The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party(MLKP) and
The Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an extreme group wishing to reinstate the Islamic
Caliphate"
Here is the list of ammunition were recored during the investigation so far (as of December
2008):
39 hand grenades,
2 detonated hand grenades,
11 kg of C-3 explosive,
1160 gr explosive blocks,
1 gas bomb,
10 fuses,
5 signal rockets,
3 smoke bombs,
21 TNT blocks,
1 re bomb,
84 capsules,
24 re cartridges,
50 bomb fuses,
35 bomb fuses of various sizes,
1 training grenade,
2 explosive pipes,
18 gr Emolite explosive,
13-centimeter long fuse for explosive capsules,
3 tubes of hydraulic acid,
3 long-range rifle,
2 rifles,
2 air rifles,
21 shotguns,
3 blank shooting revolvers,
34 cartridges,
1074 shotshells,
73 hunting shotshells,
1 silencer,
2 detonated mortar shells,
9 detonated anti-aircraft shells,
A bayonet, knives, a large number of bearings, time-controlled fuses and other material used in,
making bombs, and wireless communication devices.
The Ergenekon Investigation had a direct impact on anti-American sentiment in Turkey since
neonationalist groups including key figures of Ergenekon terrorist network was leading promoters of
anti-Americanism. According to Transatlantic Trends, Turkish warmth toward the US increased in this
year 2008 for the first time since 2006.
Another important aspect of the Ergenekon case is its Russian connection. Most of the arrested
individuals has strong tie to Russia. Former Gendarmerie General Command intelligence department
head Levent Ersöz who was also the alleged sales director of Rosoboronexport, a Russian arms exporter,
fled the country since a search warrant has been issued for him in the Ergenekon investigation. An
Interpol red bulletin was issued for him. He is currently in Russia free of movement. Alexander Dugin, a
loyal supporter of Putin, is a great supporter of the Ergenekon Terrorist network. He asked necessary
action to response investigation against anti-American and pro-Russian network from Putin and
Medvedev. He is considering this operation as a challenge of Turkey against Russia.
Called the “Cage Operation Action Plan,” the desired result from the intimidation of Turkey’s nonMuslims and the assassination of prominent ones, was that an increase in internal and external
pressure on the ruling party would ensue, leading to diminishing public support for the party.
The Cage action plan was signed by Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe and was planned to be put into operation by
a team of 41 members of the Naval Forces Command. It envisaged the assassination of prominent nonMuslim figures and the spreading of propaganda to increase internal and external pressure on the AK
Party, leading to its demise in politics, according to the plan.
The action plan would be implemented to lend support to suspects arrested so far as part of the
Ergenekon investigation, render ineffective so-called psychological warfare waged by the AK Party and
its supporters (against the military), change the course of the agenda in Turkey, boost the morale of the
junta within the Naval Forces Command, and win the appreciation and support of the public. The blame
for each of the assassinations by the junta would be put on the AK Party.
“The Action Plan To Combat (Islamic) Reactionaryism”, which was seized in the Office of Serdar Öztürk,
one of the defendants under arrest as part of the Ergenekon probe, comprises 300 pages. The action
plan incorporating strategic assessments contains suicides, bombing actions and attacks, which would
lead to repercussions in the public.
A 4 page part of the document, which has been allegedly prepared by Senior Colonel Dursun Çiçek
working in Support Section Directorate No 3 of the Operations Department in the Office of the Chief of
General Staff, was published in the daily, Taraf, on June 12, 2009.
As recent update, in the last wave of the Ergenekon terrorist organization operation, currently, 36
individuals,including three retired generals and 10 active officers of various ranks is in detention in the
police facility for interrogation due to their possible link to the terrorist network. In the house of fugitive
Lt. Colonel Mustafa Donmez in the city of Sakarya, countless amounts of weapons, including 73 hand
grenades, numerous guns and rifles along with Kalashnikov and Kanas firearms, have been found up to
this point during raids as part of the ongoing investigation into Ergenekon. In addition to this arsenal,
underground arsenals were recovered with 30 types of explosive and LAWs in Ankara’s Golbasi district
based on a map found in the home of İbrahim Şahin, a former police chief of SWAT department. He is
accused of giving order to assassinate an Armenian community member in the city of Sivas. Law
Enforcement authorities are expecting other arsenals spread all over the Turkey.
The length of the indictment was received great amount of critics but many intellectuals declared their
support to investigation and requested deepen the investigation in order to get rest of the people tied
up with the Ergenekon. They see the case as an important step to democratization of Turkey.
Until now many people were taken into police custody (86 suspects by November 2008) in relation to
the Ergenekon case. At the beginning 37 members of the organization were arrested, including well-
known military commanders, political leaders, newspaper columnists, and academicians, some of them
are;
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Sener Eruygur, Retired Full General and Former Head of Turkish Gendarmerie
Hursit Tolon, Retired Full General
Veli Kücük, a retired general,
Dogu Perincek, the chair of the Workers’ Party (IP),
Ilhan Selcuk, columnist at the Cumhuriyet newspaper,
Kemal Alemdaroglu, the former rector of Istanbul University (IU),
Fikret Karadag, a retired colonel,
Kemal Kerincsiz, ultranationalist lawyer,
Sevgi Erenerol, press spokeswoman for the “Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate,”
Tuncay Özkan, journalist, former owner of Kanal Türk TV station, and leader of the
anti-Islamist "How many are we?" movement
Adil Serdar Saçan, former police chief of Istanbul Organized Crime Division
Sinan Aygün, President of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce
Sami Hoştan, Susurluk scandal convict
Ferit Ilsever, General Manager of Ulusal TV Channel
Emin Gürses, Associate Professor at the Sakarya University.
Turkish Gladio more violent than any other
"The history of the secret army in Turkey is more violent than that of any other stay-behind
in Western Europe", Daniele Ganser, a Swiss researcher, states in his seminal work on
calendestine organizations in NATO countries.
Ganser describes the shadowy network in Turkey as "Turkish Frankestein". In Turkey the secret NATO
stay-behind army was called “Counter-Guerrilla” and operated under the direction of the Special
Warfare Department. According to Turkish General Talat Turhan the secret army was involved in terror,
torture and coup d’états.
Codenamed "Gladio" ('the sword'), the Italian secret army was exposed in 1990 by Italian Prime Minister
Giulio Andreotti to the Italian Senate, whereupon the press spoke of "The best kept, and most
damaging, political-military secret since World War II" (Observer, 18. November 1990) and observed
that "The story seems straight from the pages of a political thriller." (The Times, November 19, 1990).
Ever since, so-called 'stay-behind' armies of NATO have also been discovered in France, Spain, Portugal,
Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland,
Austria, Greece and Turkey. They were internationally coordinated by the Pentagon and NATO and had
their last known meeting in the NATO-linked Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) in Brussels in October
1990.
To read Ganser's full article on Turkey, please find Appendix.1
Ergenekon Network Exacerbates Anti-Americanism in Turkey
No matter how the Ergenekon trial ends, it will have a direct impact on anti-American sentiment in
Turkey. It is no secret that the neonationalist groups, which include the leading figures of the
Ergenekon network, have promoted anti-Americanism in Turkey.
The reading of the indictment against 86 suspects in the first trial against Ergenekon, a criminal network
accused of plotting to overthrow the government, was completed at the trial's 11th hearing. When the
process of reading the indictment ended, suspects started giving testimony in their defense. The first of
86 defendants to testify was Oktay Yildirim, a retired noncommissioned army officer with alleged links
to the 200 discovery of 27 7 hand grenades inside a house used as an arms depot in Istanbul’s Umraniye
district. Despite the fact that Yildirim’s fingerprints were found on the box in which the 27 hand
grenades stored, he claimed that neither he nor his lawyer had seen the hand grenades in the Umraniye
house (Today’s Zaman, November 12).
From the very beginning of the Ergenekon investigation and throughout the trial process the country has
been divided into two camps. On the one hand, liberal, moderate Islamists argue that Ergenekon is a
criminal network that carried out most of the unsolved political murders in recent Turkish history. On
the other hand, Kemalists and neonationalists tend to downplay the importance of the Ergenekon
network.
No matter how the Ergenekon trial ends, it will have a direct impact on anti-American sentiment in
Turkey. It is no secret that the neonationalist groups, which include the leading figures of the Ergenekon
network, have promoted anti-Americanism in Turkey. Ergenekon supporters frequently organize street
protests to accuse the United States of plotting against the network (Yeni Safak, April 19). One of
Turkey’s major Kemalist associations, Ataturkcu Dusunce Dernegi(Ataturkist Thought Association),
organized a rally last July in protest against the Ergenekon trial. Protesters accused the United States of
being the main force behind the Ergenekon inquiry (July 19). The Workers Party’s youth
movement,Turkiye Genclik Brilgi (Turkish Youth Union) is active in public and on the internet describing
the Ergenekon investigation as “an American plot against Turkish nationalists”. On the other hand,
Ergenekon supporters recently organized a protest at Silivri Prison, where the Ergenekon trial is being
held, to accuse the United States of intrigue against the Kemalists (Radikal, October 20).
It was reported that a public prosecutor had questioned Erol Olmez, one of the imprisoned Ergenekon
suspects, about connections with the terror attack on the American consulate in Istanbul on July 9
(Hurriyet, November 12). Allegedly, Bulent Cinar, one of the terrorists killed during the shootout in front
of the U.S. Consulate, had spoken on the telephone with Olmez (Taraf, November 13). There is not
enough evidence to suggest that the neonationalists in general and the Ergenekon criminal network in
particular may escalate their anti-American sentiment into that level of violence against American
institutions, but it is clear that the neonationalists and Ergenekon are the two major sources of antiAmericanism in Turkey. Given that the arrested Ergenekon suspects were frequently commentators on
TV shows and at public events and were also the main organizers of major rallies to protest the
government and American policies in Turkey and in the Middle East, one can argue that the Ergenekon
arrests should reduce the intensity of public anti-Americanism in 2008.
In addition to other factors, public antipathy toward the United States may be related to the intense
anti-American campaign of leading Ergenekon figures, such as Dogu Perincek, Sener Eruygur, Hurist
Tolon, and Emin Gurses. Turkish opinion about the United States and the American people had become
increasingly negative until 2008:
Nearly half of Turks (46%) say they have a very unfavorable view of Americans, up from just 32% a
year ago. 17% have a somewhat unfavorable view of Americans. Similarly, opinions of the U.S. fell
from 30% very or somewhat favorable last year to 23% in the current survey (Pew Global Attitudes
Report, Turkey, June 23, 2005, www.pewglobal.org/reports/pdf/247turkey.pdf).
According to German Marshall Funds of the United States’ Transatlantic Trends findings, on a 100-point
“thermometer scale,” Turkish warmth toward the United State was 20 degrees in 2006. In 2007, when
large scale rallies were organized by neonationalist groups and the anti-Americanism debate was
intensified, Turkish warmth toward the United States dropped to 11 degrees. In June of 2008, before the
Russian invasion of Georgia, Turkish warmth toward the United States increased by three degrees to 14
degrees. While Turkish warmth toward the United States has increased slightly this year, for first time
since 2006 Turkish warmth toward Russia has decreased, by three points to 18 degrees
(www.transatlantictrends.org, see the polls from 2006, 2007, and 2008).
The Ergenekon inquiry could be one of the factors that have reduced the intensity of anti-Americanism
on TV stations and in newspapers. The news channel SKYTV, for instance, has dropped two programs
that were airing anti-American themes in almost every show. The mainstream Istanbul daily Aksam,
moreover, fired one of its columnists who is known for her relationship with the Ergenekon criminal
network and anti-American sentiments.
Given the fact that the Ergenekon network’s supporters are trying hard to portray the Ergenekon trial as
an American plot against the neonationalists, no matter how the Ergenekon trial ends, it will affect
people’s opinion toward the United States in one way or another. If the major defendants are found not
guilty and released, they will appear on television, blaming not only the ruling government but also the
United States for their arrests. If the court convicts the Ergenekon suspects, their supporters will try to
depict the sentences as politically motivated under pressure from the ruling government and the United
States.
Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 5 Issue: 218
Ergenekon as an Opponent against the United States of America
Their anti-American approach is not limited to only influencing and directing the
government’s policies, or organizing legal and illegal social demonstrations, but also
extended to their activities of planning and carrying out terrorist events against American
targets
The terrorist organization called Ergenekon is a defender of anti-American opinions and considers the
United States of America and the European Union as the biggest threat to its benefits and best interests.
Ergenekon is a terrorist organization that has recently been indicted and that tries to prove itself as the
“deep state”, and connections of which has been shown with other well known terrorist organizations of
rightist and leftist origin in Turkey (Hizbullah, Türk İntikam Tugayı -TIT, Kürdistan İşçi Partisi -PKK etc.),
and that has established mafia like criminal organizations attached to itself, and that has been placing its
supporters in positions within the strategic departments of the State of Turkish Republic as part of its
aim to “overthrow the government”, and that has been trying to abuse people from those strategic
departments and other prominent politicians, businessmen, artists, academicians and alike through
threats and blackmail and that has been creating archives about those people to that end, and that tries
to channel and affect and change governmental policies and the agenda and the public opinion by using
media, non-governmental organizations and by creating its own media and non-governmental
organizations. The terrorist organization argues that the indictment against Ergenekon by the Public
Prosecutor’s Office in İstanbul has been initiated by the U.S. and that the biggest threats against the
continuation, presence and the unitary structure of the Turkish Government are the U.S. and the E.U.
The organization, thus, attempts to affect and influence the policies of the Turkish Government
accordingly based on the reasons noted above.
The investigation on Ergenekon started in 2007 based on denunciation and as a result of a
long investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in İstanbul, it has been understood that the terrorist
organization that calls itself Ergenekon is responsible for some of the most striking and noticeable
terrorist incidents (such as the attacks against Council of State and Cumhuriyet Newspaper) that has
influenced the political life in Turkey and therefore a trial has started in July 2008 against the
organization after many suspects have been apprehended and lots of arms, ammunition, explosives and
documents have been seized. As can be understood from the text of the indictment, the documents
seized during the investigation and the communications of the suspects clearly demonstrate all the anti
American and attempts and actions of the organization and actions towards influencing and changing
the policies of the Turkish government.
For instance, it is understood from the statements below that the organization considers it a success of
itself that the Turkish Parliament did not approve the proposal of the Government (known as March
1st Missive) to let American Soldiers to use the American Military Bases in Turkey during the Iraqi War;
. . . if the March 1st missive was not approved by the Parliament and Mehmetçik [Turkish Soldiers] did
not become shields for the Coni [American Soldiers] and did not die and if the U.S. is buried in the BOB
Map in Iraq, the hero behind all this is yet again the Labor Party.
CD’s seized from the Labor Party (Indictment, p. 1487)
Although in the statement above the actions are introduced as a success of the Labor Party, as can
be understood from the Indictment, Labor Party and/or the people that governs the Party have an
important position within the Ergenekon terrorist organization. As a result of the searches made
at the Labor Party facilities as part of the investigation, lots of organizational documents on
Ergenekon (the structure and operations) and classified information (secret communications,
security weaknesses etc.) about the strategic departments of the state (military, intelligence,
judiciary) and records on people that work in those departments containing highly private and
personal information as to their political, philosophical and religious views, their ethnic origins,
immoral and illegal inclinations, sexual lives, health conditions or union relations [Indictment, p.
40]) have been seized.
Considering the fact that Ergenekon suspects have been apprehended in facilities that belong to
the Labor Party, that some of the arrestees have close relationship to the Labor Party and in fact
that the leader of the Labor Party Doğu Perinçek is one of the most important indictees of the
Ergenekon Trial, it can be seen that the Labor Party has a special position within the structure of
the Ergenekon organization or that the Labor Party acts on behalf of Ergenekon as a branch. In the
statements below it is clearly stated that the Labor Party is the “Blacksmith of Ergenekon” and has
anti-American and anti-European Union views.
. . . the Labor Party is leader party, a party of devotees and the unselfish. Our Republic has been
destroyed with the 50 years small America period. The only response to this heavy destruction
and threat is to unite the county based on a revolutionary program. The Labor Party is the
blacksmith of Ergenekon and the inheritor of the 150 years old Turkish Revolution... The Labor
Party has told the peoples of this country that only snake would emerge out of the fable of E.U.,
the Labor Party is the only party that stands with determination against the destructional actions
of the imperialists of the U.S. and the E.U. and their local servants towards the Turkish Armed
Forces.
CD’s seized from the Labor Party (Indictment, p. 1487)
It is also understood from an official message sent by the National Intelligence Service to the
Headquarters of the Turkish Armed Forces that the National Intelligence Service has determined
the place and importance of the Labor Party within the Ergenekon terrorist organization. In that
message that is labeled “Top Secret Copy” in which “Labor Party headquarters houses (cells)” are
explained; it is explicitly mentioned in the document that “the Labor Party is secretly organized
within the Turkish Army”, and the structure of this organization and the fact that the military
personnel that have connection with the Labor Party possess explosives in their apartments are
described and the names and contact information of those military personnel are given in detail
(Indictment, p. 44). The fact that the message is original and not forged has been approved by the
Prosecutor’s Office. The interesting thing is that this message has also been seized during the
searches in the premises of the Labor Party.
As mentioned in the Indictment, another statement concerning the “March 1st Missive” is
obtained from the recorded phone conversations between the suspects captured within the
framework of the investigation. In those conversations suspect Erkut ERSOY, who is mentioned in
the Indictment to be the leader of the intelligence unit of the terrorist organization, explicitly
argues that they have contributed to the non-passage of the missive from the Parliament.
In the phone conversation between suspect Erkut ERSOY and another person named Müfit
recorded on 22ndMarch 2007, it is understood that:
. . . Erkut said that “I spare my time mostly to field actions, brother, we will spend our time in the
field”, Müfit replied, “Exactly, you have started then, as to myself, I have started almost around
before the start of the Gulf War, after that if the missive has not been approved even with one
vote short, we also have a contribution in that, we know that it has happened before they have
been deployed beforehand, after that we did all we could, there is no need to repeat the same
thing over and over” and after mentioning the work and actions they have taken Erkut also said
that “I mean, Yes, so far we have relayed 34 thousand messages”.
(Indictment, p. 2156)
Ergenekon Terror Organization arranged anti-American protests and rallies/parades by using its
non-governmental organizations (Combatant Veteran’s Association, Association of Martyr’s
Families, Ataturkist Thought Association, National Power Platform, STK Union Platform, Crescent
Moon-Star Association) (Indictment, p. 1844); It is understood that such activities against the U.S.,
E.U., and IMF are planned by Patriot Forces Power Association /Nationalist Forces Association
(VKGB) (see Suspect Aki KUTLU’s interrogative/prosecutorial statement, Indictment, p. 2426); And
“that the goals and activities of VKGB operate in the same line with ERGENEKON’s secret purposes
and strategies (Indictment, p. 115).
In addition, considering the provocative burning activity of Turkish Flag, started in Mersin City,
which then caused several protests that spread throughout the country, was organized by the
Ergenekon suspect Ali KUTLU on behalf of VKGB, and this same VKGB organized a rally/parade in
Diyarbakir City on behalf of the Ergenekon terrorist organization with the order and directives of
Labor Party leader Doğu PERİNÇEK (see Hidden Witness 17’s statement, Indictment, p. 115). All
these events and networks show that Labor Party leader, VKGB, and Ergenekon Terror
Organization are interrelated and interconnected.
More importantly, their anti-American approach is not limited to only influencing and directing
the government’s policies, or organizing legal and illegal social demonstrations, but also extended
to their activities of planning and carrying out terrorist events against American targets.
For instance, very detailed action plans against the NATO facilities were found in the CD that was
confiscated in the office and residence of Ergenekon Suspect Hayati ÖZCAN, in the frame of
Ergenekon Investigation/Inquiry. And NATO is well known of its high population of American
officers/officials. According to the Indictment, the following information was also found in the CD:
ID information, color copies of IDs, scanned digital versions of signatures of all officers and staff
that work in the NATO base, located in Şirinyer, Izmir, as well as pictures of buildings and facilities
of that place, and yet pictures of family members of some high ranking commanders.
(Indictment, p. 44)
And yet, in the same CD:
A statement that indicates that “the apartment” in front of the open park of the NATO
facilities “will be rent and the six-month payment will be made all in cash”, was found in a word
document; some detailed instructions about what kind of printer and type of cartridge or toner
will be used while writing security cards were also found in some of the documents; some detailed
plans, maps, pictures about a possible sabotage of explosion, even after the explosion, how the
fire hydrants would be made out-of-service; and many marks made on the pictures; and the
directions used by the NATO staff while going out of and coming to the facilities were also
indicated and the weak security points were marked; and it is also understood from the digital
versions of all these documents that the project and plans were done in February-March of 2007.
(Indictment, p. 44)
And yet, as also showed in the media, the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Sariyer City, and three
police officers killings by armed terrorists were not simply done by Al-Qaeda as it was claimed, but
the same terrorist organization (Ergenekon) involvement. The alleged leader of the attacking
group, Erkan KARGIN, was not found to have a concrete connection with Al-Qaeda, although it
was said that he had a certain fondness to it. However, it was claimed that he was frequently
visited by several public officials after he returned from Afghanistan in 2007(Köroğlu/Zaman,
2008), and more importantly, when Erkan KARGIN was killed in the attack, his cell phone was
investigated and found that he contacted with Erkut ERSOY (who was detained and accused of
being the leader of organization’s intelligence services) and got the directives of this attack from
him (Zengin/Sabah, 2008).
Why Ergenekon terrorist organization would want to attack to American Consulate is clarified by
an Ergenekon suspect’s wire tapping conversations. Emin GURSES, allegedly takes part in the university
structure of Ergenekon, states on the phone on January 23rd, 2008: “If they get me in, they know that
our people will do anything to explode the ambassadors of the U.S. and Israel” (see Indictment, p.1309).
In conclusion, the organizational documents confiscated during Ergenekon Investigation/Inquiry,
the tapes of warm conversations among suspects, and the statements of suspects are full of evidence
that show the anti-American face of Ergenekon terror organization, but not limited to the examples
mentioned above. The Labor Party and its leader Dogu PERINCEK’s press statements, and mass media
arguments on this issue so far are also supporting this claim. The Ergenekon members’ being so antiAmerican is due to their perception of seeing the U.S. as a direct threat to themselves. It is estimated
that depending on the degree of perception of that threat, the degree and violence level will be
increased or decreased. In addition, they are very much interested in political and governmental
agendas, and in order to influence these agendas they may attempt to do some provocative activities. In
this regard, American targets could be chosen due to their potential to attract all the attention from all
around the World.
On the other hand, there are two reasons of why Ergenekon members could believe that America
had initiated all the operations made against the Ergenekon: (1) Either Ergenekon members cannot see
the World and Turkey correctly/appropriately, and don’t have the ability to do that, or (2) in order to
show and exaggerate their power more than it is, they may claim that it can only be the United States of
America, but not Turkey, that can do such (big) operations against such a powerful organization. By
doing that they are trying to apply one of the techniques of psychological warfare, believing that they
know those techniques so well. (Indeed,) Both of these possibilities show that this organization is not as
powerful as the organization tries to show.
Dugin and Ergenekon
Eurasianism as an alternative to the Western alliance is the basic discourse of the Ergenekon
network. However, the Turkish public knows little about Alexandr Dugin, a Russian
intellectual and the leading figure of Eurasianism, who also has some Ergenekon suspects.
Who is Dugin?
He is a frequent commentator on foreign affairs in the Russian media
He is the leading spokesman for neo-Eurasianism, an adaptation of the original Eurasianism which fits
well with the nationalist and anti-American positions that have become increasingly mainstream in
recent years.
He is the founder of the Anti-Orange Youth Front, a street movement, and the author of a weekly
program on Spas, the Orthodox satellite channel.
He is the moving spirit behind the New University, a regular lecture series and the author of various
books and articles based on these lectures and similar sources. In these capacities, he is the leading
Russian spokesman for Traditionalism, and international movement originating in the esoteric milieux of
the late-nineteenth century Paris.
He is the leader of the International Eurasia Movement. This not only represents Eurasianism in former
Soviet countries such as the Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but has some significance in Western Europe,
where it is an inspiring example for the extreme Right.
Dugin is almost entirely self-taught: he received no formal higher education, having been expelled from
the Institute of Aviation in 1983, at the age of 22.
Dugin entered politics directly for the first time in 1993 as one of three founders of the National
Bolshevik Party (NBP), along with the novelist Edvard Limonov and the musician Egor Letov. Today antiOrange Youth Front is an echo of the NBP, which is best understood not as a political party but as a
youth group. He came to the attention of a wider audience in 1997 with the publication of “Geopolitical
Foundations: the geopolitical Future of Russia.”
Dugin became loyal to President Putin, and still retains good relations with him.
Dugin is now the leader of Eurasia Movement which he founded in 2001, and it is different than NBP,
i.e., it is not a youth movement, it included such figures as Dr. Aleksandr Panarin, Mufti Talgat Taj-al-Din,
Archbishop Andrian (the patriarch of the Old Believers), and Mikhail Leontiev.
What is his underlying ideology?
It is Traditionalism, which is the key to his neo-Eurasianism. His traditionalism comes in two strands,
one spiritual or esoteric, and one political. Both derive from Rene’ Guenon (1886-1951), a quasi-Masonic
order… he takes Guenon as “undiscovered Marx.”
Another ideologue for Dugin is the Italian Political Traditionalist, Baron Julius Evola (1897-1974), who
became the chief inspiration for activists who were at one point responsible for an average of 80
terrorist attacks a month. It should be noted, however, that despite the foregoing violent aspect, Evolian
political Traditionalism remained spiritual and esoteric. In recent years, spiritual Traditionalism has
spread from Catholic Europe and America to the Muslim world, especially Iran, Turkey, and Malaysia.
Dugin’s Traditionalism is entirely non-Russian origin. Although most followers of Guenon have become
Sufis, Dugin chose Old Belief (a traditional esoteric and religious path, the foundations of which lie in the
Traditionalism) over Sufism, because he was a Russian in Russia. Dugin’s political action may be inspired
by Evola and Traditionalism, but that action takes place within Russia, and is facilitated by good relations
with the Church.
Traditionalism is an anti-modernist philosophy, and so has more appeal in countries with problematic
experiences of modernity than in countries with unproblematic experiences of modernity, or in
countries with little experience with modernity. Soviet-Union’s modernity was definitely problematic,
that is why Dugin’s ideas are enticing to many people in Russia today. (This part is important vis a
vis Turkish problems with modernization).
Dugin became acquainted with Traditinalism in a circle of intellectuals which meets today at the New
University.
Dugin’s identification of America as the chief representative of modernity, and so as Russia’s chief
enemy, is a continuation of Cold War perceptions. Likewise, his Eurasian bloc is an essentially
continuation of the Old Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, with the addition of Iran and Turkey. His
positive view of the Soviet Union, however, does not stem from his conviction that Soviet Union was
good, but from that of “Western Democracy is worse.”
Important notes:
1) His staunchly defense of anti-Americanism seems to resonate with a significant number of Russians,
especially the youth… I realized this when I was watching a debate on You-tube (in Russian) between
Dugin and Viktor Erofeev, a well-known Russian author. During this debate, people were able to vote for
their favorite discussant through text-messages which could be seen on the TV screen. As a result he
received about 50.000 votes, whereas Erofeev received about 30.000. In addition, the audience that was
present at the debate applauded stronger when Dugin bashed America and American policies, and when
he used a “patriotic” tone. Given the Russian imperial legacy which is said to have resurrected recently
in Russia, it can be said that Dugin’s ideas will most likely appeal to many people in the years to come.
2) In the Evrazia.org (Dugin’s website), I have read an interview given by Mehmet Perincek in which he
was asked questions about the Ergenekon operation. Given his father’s involvement, Mehmet, not
surprisingly, downplayed the operation and ridiculed it. He said that the real patriots are being tried,
and eventually they will be exonerated. He also said that there is need for a revolution in Turkey based
on the ideas of Ataturk.
The fact that this interview was conducted by Dugin’s followers can be important in regards to the
alleged ties between Dogu Perincek and Aleksandr Dugin.
3) Anti-Americanism and Anti-EUism of Ergenekon and its link to Eurasianism should be thought of
together.
Ergenekon vs. Minorities
Members of ETO were wise enough that they cannot rule Turkey until there is a chaos in the
country. Therefore, they have sowed seeds of chaos and hatred in the society through
bombings, assassinations and other means of violence.
Ergenekon Terrorist Organization (ETO) members are understood to come from within powerful areas
in the state and military apparatus, or to be tied to such power. No one knows how many or who,
exactly, belongs to the group, which is nearly always characterized as "shadowy." This shadowy group is
associated with the premise that Turkey has a "deep state" -a state within a state made up of a network
of individuals linked to Turkish organized crime, the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and potentially others.
ETO members have plotted foment unrest by assassinations of intellectuals, politicians, military staff,
judges and religious leaders. Members of ETO had an ultimate aim to remove the pro-Western
government through a coup, which they have planned in 2009. Namely, members of ETO were wise
enough that they cannot rule Turkey until there is a chaos in the country. Therefore, they have sowed
seeds of chaos and hatred in the society through bombings, assassinations and other means of violence.
Let us analyze some techniques ETO members have used to provoke society in order to grasp the
broader picture of ETO. Throughout the history, Armenians and Turks have lived together in peace and
harmony. There were intermarriages between the societies. Armenians are known as a ‘Loyal Nation’
(Millet-i Sadika) in Ottoman history. As everyone would know alleged ‘Armenian Genocide’ was a tool
to be used by ‘Ergenekon’ to fuel the hatred to Armenian community living in Turkey. Therefore, ETO
members needed a target to assassinate so it will not only ruin the image of Turkey in international
arena but also will cause societal unrest in Turkey. Hrant Dink was one of the distinguished Armenian
intellectual who was also the chief editor of the ‘Agos’ weekly newspaper. Dink has statements about
the ‘Armenian Genocide’ that ‘there are two societies both are ill, they are Turks and Armenians. There
is no any doctor who can cure this illness. Turks can cure the Armenians, and Armenians can cure the
Turks. There is only way to solve the problem is through dialogue’ in one of his last interviews.
Furthermore, on 7 October 2005, Hrant Dink was given a six-month suspended prison sentence by the
Sisli Court of First Instance No. 2 in Istanbul for "denigrating Turkishness" in an article he wrote on
Armenian identity. According to the prosecutor in the case, Hrant Dink had written his article with the
intention of denigrating Turkish national identity which was not the case. Therefore, ETO members
cannot find better target than Hrant Dink who has been suspended by Turkish Court and who is
promoting dialogue on ‘Genocide’ case. Last thing ETO members would want is a dialogue which will
result in peace on both the Turkish and Armenian sides. Since Hrant Dink has ‘denigrated Turkishness’
he would be an easy target to ultranationalists. On January 19, 2007, Hrant Dink
was assassinated in Istanbul, by Ogün Samast, a 17-year old Turkish ultranationalist. Two days after the
assassination murderer had been captured by police forces. At present, Hrant Dink case has been unified
with the Ergenekon case as it was mentioned in Ergenekon 1st indictment. It was expected as Dink’s
death would loosen the glue of a mosaic which has been tight for centuries and fueled the hatred in
both Armenian and Turkish societies as it was planned by ETO. However, Turkish society and officials has
protested this assassination and invited Armenian officials to the funeral of Hrant Dink. As expected,
Armenian Diaspora and society used this murder as a proof to the alleged genocide. Moreover, Turkey
was protested in Armenia as well as in some European countries.
ETO members are well known for being anti-USA, anti-NATO and anti-EU since they have not backed by
them. Therefore, they needed to hinder Turkey from having good relations with the West and ultimately
joining the EU. Hence, ETO needed a target which will ruin relations with both EU and USA. Italian
Roman Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was an indispensable target for them, so, Catholic priest was
murdered while kneeling in the prayer in Santa Maria Church, Trabzon, Turkey on February 5, 2006. Two
days after the murder murderer was found and jailed. Oğuzhan Akdin was an ultra-nationalist, had only
16 years of age, a high school student who was accused of the killing. He was sentenced to 18 years and
ten months in jail for "premeditated murder" by a court in Ankara. Killer has told to Turkish police that
he has killed priest because of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy by Danish
newspaper. Now let us have a close look to the consequences of the murder. The catholic world is one
of the strongest and populous denominations of Christian faith, which has more than a billion Catholics
in the world according to Vatican in 2007. Since EU and USA have huge Catholic populations, shooting
should have damaged the relations with Turkey reciprocally.
Since Turkey mainly has population of Muslims which consists of more than 90 %, missioners were
targeted. So it can result in conflict of Muslims and Christians, which will remind us the theory of ‘clash
of civilizations’ by Samuel Huntington. ETO members have done their homework well as it is easy to
observe the targeted ones. One of the Christian Publishing Company, Zirve Yayinevi, in Malatya was
attacked by five youngsters and three workers were murdered, one was a German citizen. Zirve
publishing company was publishing Bibles and other Christian literature. Again the murderers were
ultranationalist youngsters whose have caused massacre of Christians on April 18, 2007. After the
Malatya massacre there were many other attacks and murder attempts targeting Christians once again.
A Catholic priest was stabbed in the stomach during a service at a Catholic church in Izmir. In Samsun,
Diyarbakir and Antalya, other murder attempts were prevented by successful operations by the police.
ETO members have planned and acted so successfully that they have almost ended up in a coup. It is
obvious from both first and second indictments of Ergenekon that this is not an organization of think
tank or civic movement. However, it is an organization which planned and orchestrated the violence,
killings, bombings and shootings. Surprisingly, there is a strong propaganda against the Ergenekon case
in the media, which shows they are strong in this area as well. The case is presented as if it were just a
fabrication by the government in order to silence its political opponents. Unfortunately, this is
absolutely not the case.
To cause a chaos in society, minorities are the Achilles heel. With all murders as mentioned above, ETO
members were trying to send a message to the members of both Christian communities in Turkey and
around the world that they are not welcome in Turkey. On the other hand, Ergenekon wants to give the
impression to Turkey and the outside world that as soon as an Islamic-oriented government came to
power, massacres against Christians started which will help ETO members a reason to topple down the
government while creating obstacles to Turkey's EU path. Tolerating or ignoring such a terrorist
organization would mean suicidal of a society.
In late years there was undeniable improvement in relations between Muslim and Christian faiths
around the globe. These incidents prove that ETO members are opposing to the closeness of Muslim and
Christian communities, and probably have nightmares about the notion of an Islamo-
Christian civilization, a term uttered by Richard W. Bulliet. ETO members have sowed the seeds of
hatred so there would be a chaos environment. As they tried to divide the society so it would be easy to
rule. They have admired the Jacobinism and militant democracy which shows they are ‘democratic’
people even though it is militant. ETO has used any means that will help them to achieve their aim.
Operation Cage (Kafes) Action Plan
Called the “Cage Operation Action Plan,” the desired result from the intimidation of Turkey’s
non-Muslims and the assassination of prominent ones, was that an increase in internal and
external pressure on the Justice and Development Party (AKP) would ensue, leading to
diminishing public support for the party.
The Cage action plan was signed by Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe and was planned to be put into operation by
a team of 41 members of the Naval Forces Command. It envisaged the assassination of prominent nonMuslim figures and the spreading of propaganda to increase internal and external pressure on the AK
Party, leading to its demise in politics, according to the plan.
The action plan would be implemented to lend support to suspects arrested so far as part of the
Ergenekon investigation, render ineffective so-called psychological warfare waged by the AK Party and
its supporters (against the military), change the course of the agenda in Turkey, boost the morale of the
junta within the Naval Forces Command, and win the appreciation and support of the public. The blame
for each of the assassinations by the junta would be put on the AK Party.
a. Operation Draft:
(1) General Information
(a) For the purpose of ensuring that the Special Operations Force Command extend
support to those under arrest as part of Ergenekon Case, make the counter
psychological warfare by AKP and its supporters ineffective, boost the morale of
the organization and win public support, terrorizing propaganda will be staged
targeting at the non-Moslems and such activities will be shown via black
propaganda as if they were executed by AKP and other evil hubs supporting AKP.
(b) The psychological operation activities to be executed are indicated by Annex B
Psychological Operation Campaign Control Form.
(2) The operation will be executed in four stages:
(a) Preparatory Stage:
(1) The names and addresses of the non-Muslim population will be determined
(2) The subscription lists of the newspapers, magazines, etc., owned by the nonMuslims will be obtained
(3) The students, parents and employees of the educational facilities owned by the
non-Muslims will be identified.
(4) The community lists of the foundations and places of worship owned by the
non-Muslims will be obtained.
(5) The religious festivals / major days of the non-Muslims as well as the
locations where religious service and ceremonies are held by them.
(6) The cemeteries of the non-Muslims, which would fit action, will be identified.
(b) Terrorizing Stage:
(1) The lists of subscribers to AGOS Newspaper, which have been obtained, will
be published on Internet, particularly the share sites and reactionary web sites.
(2) Calls of threat will be made and letters of threat sent to the subscribers to
AGOS Newspaper.
(3) Slogans with threatening contents will be written on the intensive routes in
Adalar region.
(4) The lists of subscribers will be duplicated and left at such locations where they are
easily visible to the citizens living on Adalar.
(c) Stage of building public opinion:
(1) It will be ensured that the lists of subscribers are published by the press, thus
receiving coverage.
(2) Columns will be commissioned about the issue.
(3) The issue will have coverage by the debate programs, with the nonsensical
attitude of AKP government being raised.
(4) The media will again give coverage of the Incidents of September 6 – 7 and
news articles on the Wealth Tax.
(5) Anti-AKP web sites will be increased so that they stage intensive activities.
(6) Web sites operating against the minorities will be supported in terms of their
contents.
(7) By developing new websites under titles www.tehditaltindayiz.com (“we are
under threat”) , www.agosasahipcikalim.com” (“let us protect Agos”), etc., in
addition the present ones, broadcasting will be made in line with predetermined themes and such sites will be effectively promoted.
(8) By establishing Web sites for which impression is created that they are
funded by AKP and pro-government media, promotion of such sites shall be
made as required and publications with religious contents will be mixed with
messages showing the media of the minorities, particularly AGOS
Newspaper, as targets.
(9) By showing AKP and reactionary groups as the culprit of the actions
executed, “black propaganda” will be carried out in terms of origin.
(d) Stage of Action:
(1) Bombs will be exploded at various quarters in Adalar region.
(2) Assassination will be plotted against persons having a high profile as a fierce
defender of minority rights.
(3) Sound bombs will be placed at the pre-determined spots such as the vicinity of
AGOS Newspaper.
(4) By placing suspicious packages at many spots and informing the police of
them, the security forces will be kept pre-occupied.
(5) Action involving bombs will be staged at the piers where boat journeys to
Adalar are organized.
(6) Sensational actions will be executed at the cemeteries of the non-Moslems.
(7) One or several of the popular non-Muslim businessmen and artists will be
kidnapped.
(8) Vehicles, houses and workplaces will be frequently will be set on fire in those
regions having dense non-Muslim population.
(9) Similar actions will also be made in the provinces such as Istanbul and İzmir
where the non-Muslims live densely.
(10) Actions of sabotage, kidnapping and assassination executed will be
claimed on behalf of the reactionary organizations determined following
coordination to be made with the special plan cell leaders.
To read the full version of the original Cage Plan please find Appendix.2
The Action Plan to Combat Reactionaryism
“The Action Plan To Combat Reactionaryism”, which was seized in the Office of Serdar Öztürk, one of the
defendants under arrest as part of the Ergenekon probe, comprises 300 pages. The action plan
incorporating strategic assessments contains suicides, bombing actions and attacks, which would lead to
repercussions in the public.
A 4 page part of the document, which has been allegedly prepared by Senior Colonel Dursun Çiçek
working in Support Section Directorate No 3 of the Operations Department in the Office of the Chief of
General Staff, was published in the daily, Taraf, on June 12, 2009.
It is now uncovered that the Office of the Chief of Staff has prepared a new action plan titled, “combat
reactionaryism”. The new plan belonging to the Office of the Chief of Staff, that was seized in the office
of Lawyer Serdar Öztürk, a former officer now practicing as a lawyer, who was arrested as part of
Ergenekon investigation, were taken down under minutes and are now expected to incorporated into the
third indictment on Ergenekon. At the same time, Öztürk was acting as the attorney for Colonel Levent
Göktaş, a member of the Special Forces, who was also arrested under Ergenekon.
The conclusive part of the plan covers “Black Propaganda Activities”. Here is that part:
To read the full version of the original The Action Plan To Combat (Islamic) Reactionaryism”, please find
Appendix.3
Allegations
The investigation exposed alleged links between an armed attack on the Turkish Council of State in 2006
that left a judge dead,[114] a bombing of a secularist newspaper,[114] threats and attacks against
people accused of being unpatriotic and the 1996 Susurluk incident, as well as links to the plans of some
groups in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to overthrow the present government. According to the
investigation, Ergenekon had a role in the murder of Hrant Dink, a prominent journalist of Armenian
descent[13][115][116] Italian priest Father Andrea Santoro in February 2006 and the brutal murders of
three Christians, one a German national, killed in the province of Malatya in April
2007.[117] Furthermore, files about JİTEM related the assassination of former JİTEM commander Cem
Ersever, killed in November 1993, to Ergenekon.[117] A former JİTEM member, Abdülkadir Aygan, said
that JİTEM is the military wing of Ergenekon.[118]
Documents seized in the investigation if authentic would show that the group planned a bomb attack
in İstanbul's Taksim Square, triggering chaos that would be used as a pretext for military intervention. It
is also alleged that those detained were involved in provocation and agitation during the Gazi incidents
of 1995, when tens of people died in clashes with the police in demonstrations after an attack at
an Alevi coffeehouse in the neighborhood.[119]
Recently uncovered evidence suggests that the 1993 death of General Eşref Bitlis, and that of
journalist Uğur Mumcu may be related to Ergenekon.[120] Both Bitlis and Mumcu were investigating
how Jalal Talabani, one of the Kurdish leaders of northern Iraq and, as of 2008, president of Iraq, came
into possession of 100,000 firearms belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces.[121]
In March, a journal allegedly written by former Naval Forces Commander retired Adm. Özden Örnek
referred to as the "coup diaries" was included in the second indictment prepared by the
prosecution[122]. Örnek, former Land Forces Commander Gen. Aytaç Yalman and Retired Former Air
Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına, testified to the prosecutors in January, 2010.[123][124] These
generals are mentioned in the diaries as having devised military coup plans titled “Ayışığı” (Moonlight)
and “Sarıkız” (Blonde Girl) between the years 2001 and 2004 when they still served in the military.
According to the Turkish daily Today's Zaman, Ergenekon was involved in assassinations of Iranian
reformist leader Dariush Forouhar and his wife Parvaneh Eskandari Forouhar.[125]
Militant links
According to Zaman, there are links between Ergenekon and numerous militant organizations, such as
the "Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation
Party/Front (DHKP/C), the Islamist organization Hizbullah, the ultranationalist Turkish Revenge
Brigades (TİT), the Turkish Workers' and Peasants' Liberation Army (TİKKO), theMarxist-Leninist
Communist Party(MLKP) and the Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an extreme group wishing to
reinstate the Islamic Caliphate".[48]
Zaman quoted a senior intelligence officer, Bülent Orakoğlu, as having said that the PKK, Dev
Sol, Hezbollah, and Hizb ut-Tahrir are artificial organizations set up by the network, and thatAbdullah
Öcalan himself is an Ergenekon member.[126] Zaman also writes that the former PKK leader, Şemdin
Sakık, said in his testimony that the Ergenekon network was in close contact with the group and even
co-operated with it on several occasions. According to Sakık, he was brought to Turkey by a group of
men led by Mahmut Yıldırım, also known as Yeşil (Green)—a convicted mafia leader whose name had
surfaced in the report on the Susurluk scandal.[127] He is believed to have been killed shortly after the
Susurluk scandal.[128]
Sakık said the Ergenekon gang planned to co-operate with a number of terrorist organizations, including
the PKK, to achieve its objectives. "This cooperation was realized with Doğu Perinçek (the leader of the
Workers' Party) and several other figures. Cemil Bayık (a senior PKK leader) was also among these
figures," he remarked.[129] In another Zaman article, JITEMinformant Abdulkadir Aygan made a similar
remark.[130]
Zaman's claims have been disputed.[131] The testimony of Sakık was not released to the press, hence it
is not official. PKK's imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan, declared before court that Sakık had killed 33
people on Ergenekon's orders.[132]
Öcalan dismissed allegations made by intelligence officer Bülent Orakoğlu concerning himself, but he did
say that a group inside the PKK, which he called the Zaza Group, had links with Ergenekon. He said that
this group was led by Sait Çürükkaya and tried to seize control of the PKK, adding "Particularly in the
Diyarbakır-Muş-Bingöl triangle, they have staged intensive and bloody attacks."[133]
Kurdish Democrat Ahmet Acar alleged that Öcalan instructed the PKK-friendly Democratic Society
Party (DTP) to remain silent about Ergenekon.[134]
Lieutenant Mehmet Ali Çelebi, detained in the Ergenekon investigations, allegedly had links with the
extreme Islamist group Hizb-ut Tahrir.[135] Çelebi was allegedly the key which made possible the arrest
of five Hizb-ut-Tahrir members in September 2008.[133] Hizb-ut Tahrir refutes the allegations.[136]
Responding to allegations in Taraf, DHKP/C issued a press release ridiculing claims of its connection to
Ergenekon.[137]
Investigation
The investigation was officially launched after an anonymous call in June 2007 to the Trabzon
Gendarmerie turned up a chest of grenades belonging to members of the Special Forces Command
(Turkish: Özel Harekât Dairesi, ÖHD). An investigation of the network of acquaintances of the suspects
turned up more information and snowballed into the present situation. Members of the ÖHD were
notably implicated in the covered-up Susurluk scandal from ten years earlier. The bulk of the Ergenekon
indictment was drawn from documents found in 2001 when a former National Intelligence
Organization agent named Tuncay Güney got detained (his identity unknown to the police) for a minor
offense. Some say this was deliberate, as he provided detailed information to the police about
Ergenekon while in detention for an unrelated felony. The Istanbul police force closed the investigation
by 2002 citing a lack of incriminating evidence. Another significant development was the abortive coups
of 2004. When the intelligence agencies got wind of an assassination threat towards Chief of Staff Yaşar
Büyükanıt and yet another coup planned for 2009 (under Büyükanıt's successor, İlker Başbuğ), the
investigation was kick-started. Around the same time, the dissolution of the incumbent Justice and
Development Party was proposed. Trial hearings began on 20 October 2008.
ERGENEKON CHRONOLOGY
3 November 1996 A traffic accident near the small town of Susurluk, brought
illegal organizations to light.
1997
The name Ergenekon, as a clandestine organization, was first
pronounced.
2001
First official document was found related with Ergenekon.
9 November 2005
Two junior officers were caught red-handed during an
illegal bombing.
5 February 2006
Father Andrea Santoro was murdered in Trabzon.
5-11 May 2006
Cumhuriyet daily was bombed three times during May 2006.
17 May 2006
Council of State had been attacked; a senior judge was shot
dead.
18 January 2007
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was shot dead in front of his
newspaper Agos.
25 March 2007
Nokta journal published “Coup diaries”.
18 April 2007
Three Christians were killed in an attack at a publishing house in
Malatya.
12 June 2007 First Wave - 27 hand grenades were found during a
police raid to a shanty house in Ümraniye.
26 June 2007
Second Wave - Weapons and explosives were found in
Eskişehir.
21 January 2008
Third Wave - Veli Küçük got arrested.
21 February 2008
Fourth Wave - Academics got arrested.
21 March 2008
Fifth Wave – Doğu Perinçek and İlhan Selçuk were detained,
Perinçek got arrested.
26 March 2008
Coup diaries were verified.
13 June 2008
Taraf daily unraveled a secret meeting between Osman Paksüt
and İlker Başbuğ.
5 July 2008
Sixth Wave - Retired generals got arrested.
7 July 2008
“Eldiven” (Glove) coup plot was discovered.
9 July 2008
American Consulate was attacked.
9 July 2008
Özkök made an interview with the Milliyet daily, he didn’t deny
the allegations at the coup diaries.
14 July 2008 First indictment was presented to the court.
23 July 2008
Seventh wave was launched.
14 August 2008
Retired Colonel Arif Doğan was arrested.
3 September 2008 Kocaeli Garrison Commander visited the Ergenekon
detainee generals, on behalf of Turkish Armed Forces.
8 September 2008 Eighth wave was launched.
23 September 2008 Ninth wave was launched.
20 October 2008 Ergenekon trial began.
17 Aralık 2008 Council of State attack case was merged with the
Ergenekon investigation.
7 January 2009 Tenth Wave-General Kılınç, Major General Şenel and former
president of the Higher Education Board, Prof. Kemal Gürüz were arrested.
08 January 2009 Arms caches were unearthed at various places.
14 January 2009 Ergenekon fugitive Brigadier General Levent Ersöz was
captured in Ankara.
15 January 2009 Interrogation of Tuncer Kılınç evoked a new debate on
“Encümen-i Daniş” (Consultation Council)
22 January 2009 Eleventh wave was launched.
27 February 2009 Voice record of Karadayı was revealed through internet.
06 March 2009 Mustafa Balbay was arrested.
08 March 2009 Death wells were opened.
10 March 2009 Second indictment was submitted.
13 April 2009 Twelfth Wave-University rectors were arrested.
20 April 2009 Arms cache was found in the land belonging to İSTEK
Foundation.
18 May 2009 Türkan Saylan died.
4 June 2009 Thirteenth Wave- Army officers are arrested as part of an
investigation into the ammunition found in Poyrazköy.
10 June 2009 Hundredth hearing in the Ergenekon trial was held.
12 June 2009 Taraf daily published a military action plan targeting the ruling
JDP and the Gülen community.
25 June 2009 Turkish Parliament paved the way for civilian courts to try
military personnel.
30 June 2009 Dursun Çiçek and eight other colonels are investigated by the
Ergenekon prosecutors.
16 July 2009 Trial of Colonel Cemal Temizöz with regard to the unsolved
murders started.
18 July 2009 Top Court Didn’t Allow Probe of Osman Paksüt.
20 July 2009 Ergenekon Case’s Second Phase started.
20 July 2009 Third Indictment was submitted to the court.
27 July 2009 HSYK (The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors) and
Justice Ministery reached a compromise on the appointment of Ergenekon
prosecutors.
3 November 1996
A traffic accident near the small town of Susurluk, brought illegal organizations to light.
The “deep state” phenomenon has surfaced for the first time by a traffic accident near the small town of
Susurluk. A police officer, a deputy and a convicted fugitive were in the same car. This accident, which is
called as “Susurluk Scandal”, revealed the relations between state, politics and mafia. Civil society
supported the investigation by concerted actions called “one minute of darkness for perpetual light”.
However, Necmettin Erbakan, then the prime minister, declared allegations as nonsense. Despite huge
public support, the investigation proved fruitless due to lack of political backing. Lack of political support
was the most evident with regard to Veli Küçük. The retired brigadier general, who is now an Ergenekon
detainee, refused to testify in front of the Parliamentary Investigation Commission for Susurluk.
1997
The name Ergenekon, as a clandestine organization, was first pronounced.
The name Ergenekon, as a clandestine organization, was first pronounced by Erol Mutercimler, a retired
naval officer and a current detainee in the Ergenekon case. Soon after him, journalists Can Dündar and
Celal Kazdağlı wrote a book entitled Ergenekon, pointing to illegal organizations within state in this name.
Official recording of the word also corresponds to these dates. At 10 March 1997, Ümit Oğuztan -a
current detainee in the Ergenekon case- wrote a petition for the then ongoing Susurluk Commission. In
his petition, he mentioned an organization named Ergenekon, and defined this organization as the
Turkish Gladio.
2001
First official document was found related with Ergenekon
Tuncay Güney, an Ergenekon suspect, and a key witness of Ergenekon probe, had been investigated due
to an ordinary fraud case. During the search at Güney’s office, police found documents about the
organizational structure of Ergenekon. Further research had led to some reports prepared by police and
intelligence services. However no concrete action was taken.
9 November 2005
Two junior officers were caught red-handed during an illegal bombing.
At 9 November 2005, two junior officers and a PKK informant bombed the Umut Bookstore belonging to
Seferi Yılmaz at the Şemdinli district of Hakkari. One person died during this attack; however perpetrators
of the attack were caught by bystanders and delivered to police officers. After the public prosecutor came
to place for investigation, fire was opened on the crowd and another person lost his life. The
investigations showed that, the car used by the assailants belonged to Gendarmerie Forces. Searches
within the car revealed a list of 105 people, three Kalashnikovs belonging to Gendarmerie, bombs and
plans of various home and workplaces.
The incident grew, when Yaşar Büyükanıt, then Commander of the Army, backed these two junior
officers by saying “I know them, they are good men”. Prosecutor, Ferhat Sarıkaya, expanded the
investigation with the claim that the unearthed gang might have connections with high ranking officials,
however, he was disbarred by the Supreme Board of Prosecutors and Judges. Two junior officers were
sentenced to 39 years. However, the Supreme Court of Appeals decided that a military court should be in
charge of the investigation. Both officers were released after their first trial in the military court.
Throughout the process, the government was accused by the public for not backing the case just as
happened during Susurluk trials.
5 February 2006
Father Andrea Santoro was murdered in Trabzon.
Father Andrea Santoro, who was a Catholic priest in the Santa Maria Church in Trabzon, was murdered
by a 16 year old ultranationalist. The murderer was caught after two days with his gun.
5-11 May 2006
Cumhuriyet daily was bombed three times during May 2006.
At 5, 10 and 11 May 2006, Cumhuriyet daily, a staunchly Kemalist newspaper, has been target of hand
grenades three times. Initially, the journal accused the Islamists for being the perpetrators of the attacks,
and for aiming to intimidate the Kemalist journal. A large public campaign was started, in which people
were called to back the journal and the republic. (Cumhuriyet means republic in Turkish.) However, later
on, Ergenekon investigation unearthed that the bombs used in these attacks belonged to the military and
has the same cache number with the bombs discovered in Ümraniye, which led to the start of Ergenekon
investigation. The journal itself accepted that the bombings were Ergenekon operations two years later,
on 15 July 2008.
17 May 2006
Council of State had been attacked; a senior judge was shot dead.
While the political tension was rising, due to the bombings of Cumhuriyet daily, Alparslan Arslan, who
was later discovered to be the perpetrator of these bombings, had attacked the Council of State leaving a
senior judge dead. Initially the attack was linked to Islamist extremists, while Alparslan Arslan, found
guilty of the Council of State killing, also said he attacked the court in protest of an anti-headscarf ruling
it had made. But Ergenekon investigation discovered evidence that, he was connected with Ergenekon. In
17 December 2008, both cases; the bombing of Cumhuriyet and the attack on the Council of State, were
merged under the Ergenekon case.
18 January 2007
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was shot dead in front of his newspaper Agos.
Editor in Chief of Agos daily, Hrant Dink was shot dead in front of his newspaper Agos, by a 17 year old
ultranationalist. The assassin, Ogün Samast, was captured the same day. Hrant Dink was sentenced by
the article 301 of Turkish penal code, which punishes denigrating Turkishness. Most of the people who
had been involved in filing Dink’s case, are now imprisoned due to Ergenekon case, pointing to the
possible involvement of Ergenekon in this murderous plot. After the assassination, Dink’s family declared
that, Hrant Dink was suspicious of Veli Küçük’s desire to kill him.
25 March 2007
Nokta journal published “Coup diaries”.
A weekly journal Nokta, published the diaries of retired Commander of Navy Özden Örnek. Diaries
revealed that during 2004, top commanders in Turkish Armed Forces were plotting a coup d’etat. The
mastermind of the plot was seen as Şener Eruygur, a key suspect in Ergenekon investigation. Örnek
denied the diaries and claimed that he had never written them, and filed against the journal. Following
week, the headquarters of Nokta was raided by the police and later on Nokta terminated itself due to
increasing pressure. However, in the case of investigation, in Mart 2008, it is technically proven that
diaries were taken from the personal computer of Özden Örnek. These diaries constitute the backbone of
the second Ergenekon indictment, submitted on 10 March 2009.
18 April 2007
Three Christians were killed in an attack at a publishing house in Malatya.
Three months after the Dink assassination, a publishing house in Malatya was attacked and three
Christians, one of whom is a German citizen were killed. Likewise in the Dink assassination, the
perpetrators were ultranationalist youngsters and they were linked with some of the key Ergenekon
suspects. This case was also later merged with Ergenekon on 21 November 2008.
12 June 2007
First Wave-27 hand grenades were found during a police raid to a shanty house in Ümraniye.
27 hand grenades were found during a police raid to a shanty house in Ümraniye. These bombs have the
same cache number with the bombs used during the bombings of Cumhuriyet daily. Later, the
investigation revealed links with these bombs and the retired officer Muzaffer Tekin. Muzaffer Tekin has
links with the Council of State shooter Alparslan Arslan, and also with the retired general Veli Küçük and
lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz. This started the process that led to unearthing of Ergenekon. This police raid and
subsequent arrests were later called as the first wave of Ergenekon. In this first wave, the retired Captain
Muzaffer Tekin, retired Junior Officers Oktay Yıldırım and Mahmut Öztürk and Bekir Öztürk, head of an
ultranationalist group called Kuvva-yı Milliye, were arrested.
26 June 2007
Second Wave-Weapons and explosives were found in Eskişehir.
Police raided a house belonging to the mother of the retired Major Fikret Emek and found large amounts
of weapons and explosives. Emek has been arrested. Later as the investigation deepened, writer Ergun
Poyraz, retired Captain Gazi Güder and four other people got arrested
21 January 2008
Third Wave-Veli Küçük got arrested.
31 people including retired Brigadier General Veli Küçük, retired Colonel and also head of an
ultranationalist group called Kuvva-yı Milliye, Fikri Karadağ, retired Captain Mehmet Zekeriya Öztürk,
lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz, Akşam columnist Güler Kömürcü, the spokesperson of the Turkish Orthodox
Patriarchate Sevgi Erenerol, Susurluk case convict Sami Hoştan, mafia leaders Sedat Peker, Ali Yasak
(known as Drej Ali) and Ümit Oğuztan got arrested. During the interrogation of the suspects, police
reached to a death list which includes, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, journalist Fehmi Koru, mayor of
Diyarbakır Osman Baydemir, and deputies of DTP Ahmet Türk, Sabahat Tuncel and former deputy Leyla
Zana. According to the list, Orhan Pamuk was the first target and even two people were hired for the
assassination.
21 February 2008
Fourth Wave-Academics got arrested.
Associate Professors Emin Gürses and Ümit Sayin, journalist Vedat Yenerer, businessman Hayrettin
Ertekin and Muammer Karabulut got arrested.
21 March 2008
Fifth Wave – Doğu Perinçek and İlhan Selçuk were detained, Perinçek got arrested
13 people including Doğu Perinçek, leader of the Workers’ Party, Kemal Alemdaroğlu, former president of
İstanbul University, İlhan Selçuk, chief columnist of the Cumhuriyet daily were detained. Alemdaroğlu and
Selçuk were released, while Perincek was arrested.
26 March 2008
Coup diaries were verified.
Coup diaries that had been published at the April of 2007, by Nokta journal were techically proven to be
extracted from the personal computer of Özden Örnek. Alper Görmüş, chief editor of Nokta journal
acquitted from the cases filed against him, but the court also ruled that there is no need for further
investigation. These diaries are part of the second indictment of Ergenekon case.
13 June 2008
Taraf daily unraveled a secret meeting between Osman Paksüt and İlker Başbuğ.
Taraf daily claimed that, Osman Paksüt, Deputy President of the Constitutional Court, and İlker Başbuğ,
then the Commander of Army, met on 4 March 2008, two weeks before the filing of closure case against
AKP. After initial denial, both sides confirmed the meeting.
5 July 2008
Sixth Wave-Retired generals were arrested.
Police detained the former Commander of the Gendermarie General Şener Eruygur, former Commander
of the 1. Army General Hurşit Tolon, Sinan Aygün, a businesman and the chairman of the Ankara
Chamber of Commerce (ATO), and Mustafa Balbay, Cumhuriyet's Ankara representative. Eruygur and
Tolon were arrested, while Balbay and Aygün were released, but Balbay got arrested again at 06 March
2009.
7 July 2008
“Eldiven” (Glove) coup plot was discovered.
Documents that were found in the office of Şener Eruygur, revealed a third coup plan other than the two
plans that were revealed by the coup diaries. After the failure of Yellow girl and Moonlight, Eruygur
seems to have lost the support of the other commanders, and according to the Eldiven document, he
planned a coup himself. During the same search, it is also revealed that Eruygur filed documents about
the then Chieff of Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt.
9 July 2008
American Consulate was attacked.
Three police officers and the assault were shot dead during the fight. It is found that Erkan Kargın, one
of the assailants, had several phone contacts with some of the Ergenekon suspects.
9 July 2008
Özkök made an interview with the Milliyet daily; he didn’t deny the allegations at the coup diaries.
At the interview he gave to Milliyet daily, Hilmi Özkök, former Chieff of Staff didn’t deny the allegations
that, during his term some of the top commanders had been involved in a coup plot. When asked about
testifying in front of the court, he said that he would think about it when the time comes. At April 2009,
he secretly testified to the prosecutors of Ergenekon investigation.
14 July 2008
First indictment was presented to the court.
First indictment was presented to the 13th Branch of the Istanbul Court for Serious Crimes and the court
accepted the indictment at 25th of July, thus the trial started officially. Suspects arrested after the fifth
wave and the allegations related with coup diaries are not included in this indictment. Detainees between
the sixth and tenth waves and the coup diaries are included in the second indictment. The first indictment
is 2455 pages long and it includes many shady events in Turkey’s history like the assassination of Uğur
Mumcu, a prominent journalist and the Gazi events and the recent attacks on the Cumhuriyet buildings
and the attack on the Council of State.
23 July 2008
Police launched the seventh wave of arrests.
A new wave of arrests in the Ergenekon investigation has targeted senior members of the Workers' Party,
and staff members of the conservative Milli Çözüm (National Solution) magazine. According to reports,
police detained 26 people around the country under the direction of the Istanbul Prosecutor's Office.
14 August 2008
Retired Colonel Arif Doğan was arrested.
Police raided the home of retired colonel Arif Doğan, and found large amounts of explosives and weapons
(2 kalashnikoves, 1000 bullets, 1000 empty bullets and 280 hand grenades). Doğan was arrested. Doğan
has worked as the Diyarbakır chief of JİTEM before Veli Küçük. With his arrest, the Ergenekon probe has
passed towards the east of Euphrates, meaning that illegal acts and organizations formed during the war
on terror in the Southeastern Turkey will be investigated for the first time. In the course of investigation,
it is found that Doğan had transferred one million dollars to one of his relatives in USA, while he was
serving at Yalova. The source of the money is yet unidentified.
3 September 2008
Kocaeli Garrison Commander, visited the Ergenekon detainee generals, on behalf of Turkish Armed
Forces.
Three days after the appointment of İlker Başbuğ as the new Chieff of Staff, Kocaeli Garrison
Commander Lieut. Gen. Galip Mendi paid a visit to imprisoned generals Şener Eruygur and Hurşit Tolon.
The visit is made public by a statement posted on the website of General Staff. The statement declared
that, the visit is made on behalf of the Turkish Armed Forces.
18 September 2008
Eighth wave was launched.
At the eighth wave of arrests at Ergenekon probe, acting officers are arrested for the first time. Five
lieutenants and a military school student, Levent Temiz, former head of Nationalist Hearths, artist Nurseli
İdiz and talent agent Seyhan Soylu are among the eleven detainees. The lieutenants are accused to be
part of Headquarter Homes (Karargah Evleri), a sub branch of Ergenekon.
23 September 2008
Ninth wave was launched.
Sixteen more people were arrested including journalist Tuncay Özkan, a former police chief Adil Serdar
Saçan and former mayor of Esenyurt district of Istanbul Gürbüz Çapan.
20 October 2008
Ergenekon trial began.
The trial started by the reading of the indictment.
17 Aralık 2008
Council of State attack case was merged with the Ergenekon investigation.
Supreme Court of Appeals decided that May 2006 Council of State attack case should be merged with the
Ergenekon investigation. 11th Branch of the Ankara Court for Serious Crimes, which was ruling the
Council of State attack case approved this decision in 19 April 2009. Finally 13th Branch of the Istanbul
Court for Serious Crimes, which rules the Ergenekon case, merged the two cases.
7 January 2009
Tenth Wave-General Kılınç, Major General Şenel and former president of the Higher Education Board,
Prof. Kemal Gürüz detained.
During the police raids that had been conducted simultaneously in twelve provinces around the country,
37 people were arrested. The former General-Secretary of the National Security Council (MGK) Tuncer
Kilinc, retired Major General Erdal Senel, the former head of the Special Operations Unit, Ibrahim Sahin,
the former president of the Higher Education Board, Prof. Kemal Gürüz, writer Yalçın Küçük, Lieutenant
Colonel Mustafa Dönmez who is still on duty (disappeared during the operations but surrendered five
days later), retired General Kemal Yavuz are among the detainees. The operation started when the police
noticed that Ibrahim Şahin ordered the assassination of the leaders of the Armenian community in Sivas.
Security teams also searched the buildings of the İSTEK Foundation and Yeditepe University owned by
former Istanbul Mayor Bedrettin Dalan and the home of Sabih Kanadoğlu, honorary chief judge of the
Supreme Court of Appeals. At 20 of April, large amounts of weaponry and explosives were found in the
lands belonging to İSTEK Foundation.
08 January 2009
Arms caches were unearthed at various places.
Turkish police launched a series of searches after sketches were found at the home of İbrahim Şahin,
who was arrested a day before. The largest cache of weaponry and explosives were found in the Gölbaşı
district of Ankara. Police also found explosives in Sincan Ankara, based on the sketches found at the
house of Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Dönmez, another Ergenekon detainee of tenth wave. The grenades
found in Sincan were identical to the grenades that had been found in Ümraniye at 12 June 2007. Other
than these two, smaller arms caches were unearthed at Ankara, Trabzon, Antalya, Sakarya and Sivas.
At 19 June 2009 military prosecutors confirmed that the sketch found at the house of Dönmez was drawn
by him and filed charges against Dönmez, demanding up to 12 years in prison. Additionally, in the
indictment prosecutor stated that hand grenades found in Dönmez's home had been supplied to the
Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) by the state-owned Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation
(MKE).
14 January 2009
Ergenekon fugitive, Brigadier General Levent Ersöz, was captured in Ankara.
One of the key suspects of the Ergenekon case, retired Brigadier General Levent Ersöz, who fled to
Moscow when he learned he was wanted, was apprehended at an Ankara hospital yesterday. He has
been wanted by police since July 2008. Later day, police found wiretapping records of former Chief of
General Staff Hilmi Özkök’s phone conversations at Ersöz’s home.
15 January 2009
Interrogation of Tuncer Kılınç evoked a new debate on “Encümen-i Daniş” (Consultation Council)
After it is revealed that the Ergenekon prosecutors questioned former General-Secretary of the National
Security Council (MGK) Tuncer Kılınc, a detainee of tenth wave, about Encümen-i Daniş, this led to a new
public debate on whether Encümen-i Daniş is the high council of the Ergenekon or not. Encümen-i Daniş
which means Consulation Council, consists of all high profile members like retired top commanders,
retired bureaucrats, diplomats and former politicians. Members of the Council confirmed the bi-weekly
secret meetings, but denied any link with Ergenekon.
22 January 2009
Eleventh wave was launched.
A total of 20 police officers from the Special Forces unit and army officers, who have connections with
former police chief İbrahim Şahin, were detained in operations waged in 15 provinces within the scope of
the 11th wave of operation Ergenekon. The operation, which was conducted 15 days after the 10th
wave, covered major cities such as Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, as well as Turkey's southeastern
provinces. Mustafa Özbek, the chairman of Turkish Metal Union, Erhan Göksel, the chairman of Verso
Center of Political Research, were among the latest detainees in the operation.
27 February 2009
Voice record of Karadayı was revealed through internet.
A voice record belonging to the Former Chieff of Staff Hakkı Karadayı started circulating through internet.
In this recorded speech, Karadayı unravels how he intervened in the presidential election process and
also he talks about the roles he undertook during the previous coups in Turkey.
06 March 2009
Mustafa Balbay was arrested.
Cumhuriyet's Ankara representative Mustafa Balbay was arrested. Later at 16 March, documents revealed
at his computer were published in a web based news portal. (tempo24.com.tr) In these documents,
Balbay explains his coup plans in detail. So far, neither Balbay nor the Cumhuriyet daily where he used to
work denied the diaries.
08 March 2009
Death wells were opened.
At 8 March, upon the request of the public prosecutor, acid wells claimed as death wells, were opened for
investigation in the Cizre district of Sirnak. At 14 March, 22 bones and a human skull aside some clothing
were found. At 23rd of March, Cemal Temizöz who served in the region during 1990-1996 was arrested
at Kayseri.
10 March 2009
Second indictment was submitted.
Second indictment was submitted. The trials of this indictment will start at 20 July. This indictment,
nearly 2000 pages covers the detainees from the sixth wave to ninth wave. A third indictment will be
prepared for the later waves.
The indictment is composed of five chapters. The first chapter summarizes the first indictment and the
second gives information about the "Ergenekon" organization. The third and the fourth chapters list
activities and crimes committed by the organization. And the final chapter includes individual acts of the
suspects.
13 April 2009
Twelfth Wave-University rectors were arrested.
At least 18 people, including the current Başkent University rector and three former university rectors,
were detained. Mehmet Haberal current rector of Başkent University, Professor Fatih Hilmioğlu, former
rector of İnönü University in the southeastern province of Malatya, Professor Ferit Bernay, former rector
of Ondokuz Mayıs University in the Black Sea province of Samsun, and Professor Mustafa Yurtkuran,
former rector of Uludağ University in the western province of Bursa, are among the detainees. Professor
Erol Manisalı, daily Cumhuriyet columnist and retired lecturer at Istanbul University, was also detained in
Istanbul.
20 April 2009
Arms cache was found in the land belonging to İSTEK Foundation.
Many weapons and bombs were unearthed in an excavation that was conducted as part of the Ergenekon
probe on land that belonged to the İSTEK Foundation in Istanbul’s Poyrazköy district. The items found
included 2,000 bullets, five booby traps, 10 hand grenades, 13 fog bombs, 11 light anti-tank weapons, 23
emergency flares and a number of 50-millimeter bomb fuses. The foundation said it was a protected area
and a military training zone, implying that weaponry should be belonging to military. At 29 April, military
disproved this statement, and also claimed that none of the weapons found belonged to the military.
However, a 10-page report by the supplier Makina Kimya Enstitüsü sent to the Prosecutor’s Office
showed that the weapons found in Poyrazköy were sent to the army, navy, air force, gendarmerie and
special forces. Owner of the foundation, Bedrettin Dalan is an Ergenekon fugitive currently in USA.
18 May 2009
Türkan Saylan died.
Türkan Saylan, whose house had been raided during the twelfth wave, died of cancer. Her funeral at 19
May, attracted large crowds
4 June 2009
Thirteenth Wave- Army officers are arrested as part of an investigation into the ammunition found in
Poyrazköy.
Twenty people, including 16 army officers on active duty, were detained in simultaneous operations
conducted in five Turkish provinces. It was claimed that the detained soldiers had ties to retired major
Levent Pektaş who was earlier arrested in relation to the arms cache found in Poyrazköy, Istanbul.
10 June 2009
Hundredth hearing in the Ergenekon trial was held.
Ergenekon trial which started at 20 October 2008, held its hundredth hearing in 10 June 2009. Thus
hundred hearings had been held in this 233 days.
12 June 2009
Taraf daily published a military action plan targeting the ruling JDP and the Gülen community.
Taraf daily published the document of an action plan, captured in the last wave of Ergenekon. The
document is prepared and signed by Colonel Dursun Çiçek, who is still on active duty. The plan is said to
contain efforts to end the activities of religious movements, particularly the AKP government and the
Gülen group. The plan called for the Gülen community to be declared an armed terror organization by
having the police "find" artillery in the community’s houses. Other actions proposed in the plan are said
to have been meant to leave the impression that the Gülen community is in cooperation with the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK; in contact with institutions like the CIA and MOSSAD; and
behind the Ergenekon case. The plan also reportedly includes efforts to discredit the National Education
Ministry.
Few days later, at the 16th of June, JDP filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutors, and prime
minister said that his party would not remain silent. Military also started an investigation, but the military
prosecutors ruled at 23rd of June that the document was a forgery and there was no need for the
prosecution of Dursun Çiçek.
25 June 2009
Turkish Parliament paved the way for civilian courts to try military personnel.
Turkey's parliament has passed legislation aimed at meeting European Union membership criteria to
ensure military personnel are tried in civilian courts during peacetime rather than in military courts. The
legislation passed on Friday requires civilian courts to try members of the armed forces who are accused
of crimes including threats to national security, constitutional violations, organizing armed groups and
attempts to topple the government. The change to the penal code also says civilians cannot be tried in
military courts unless the country is in a state of martial law or at war.
At 26th June, İlker Başbuğ, the Chieff of Staff, made a press conference reflecting the unrest of military
with regard to the debates on the action plan published by Taraf, and the legislative changes that
enables the military personnel to be tried by civilian courts. Despite voting affirmatively for the legislation,
secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) later applied the top court at 13 July in order to annul the law.
At 23rd July, the top court accepted to deal with the change.
30 June 2009
Dursun Çiçek and eight other colonels are investigated by the Ergenekon prosecutors.
Following the military prosecutor’s ruling that there is no need for the prosecution of Colonel Dursun
Çiçek, Ergenekon prosecutors started an investigation of Çiçek and eight other colonels within the scope
of Ergenekon probe. Dursun Çiçek was arrested by court order the same day, but was released by a
higher court a day later.
16 July 2009
Trial of Colonel Cemal Temizöz with regard to the unsolved murders started.
The most comprehensive case dealing with the unsolved murders in Turkey's southeast started with a
court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır asserting a serious claim about Col. Cemal Temizöz, the
head of the provincial gendarmerie forces in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri. The court alleged
that Temizöz forced confessors to kill 20 people within the scope of the "fight against terrorism" when he
was commissioned in Cizre town, in the southeastern province of Şırnak.
18 July 2009
Top Court Didn’t Allow Probe of Osman Paksüt
Turkey’s highest court announced that there was no need to launch an investigation of the court’s vice
president, Osman Paksüt, regarding his alleged involvement with suspects in the ongoing Ergenekon
probe and leaking court information. The decision constitutes a precedent in the ongoing Ergenekon
case.
Discussing the case on Friday, the top court concluded that court member Osman Paksüt leaked
information to the third parties on the closure case of the AKP but decided not to launch an investigation
into him on grounds that the collected evidence was illegal as he had his phone tapped without court
approval. The top court voted 10-1 against any investigation into Osman Paksüt.
20 July 2009
Ergenekon Case’s Second Phase started
The Istanbul High Criminal Court has begun trying 56 suspects under the second indictment of the
"Ergenekon" probe. The 1909-page indictment includes accusations against 56 suspects including retired
generals Hursit Tolon and Mehmet Sener Eruygur. 16 of those suspects have already been under arrest.
Prosecutors demanded aggravated life imprisonment for 13 suspects of the Ergenekon probe. The court
is expected to decide first whether to merge the second case with the first one in which 86 other people
are already on trial for their alleged involvement in the organization. They are also accused of planning
assassinations and bombings to sow chaos and overthrow the government.
20 July 2009
Third Indictment was submitted to the court.
The Ergenekon prosecutors submitted the third indictment of the Ergenekon probe to the İstanbul Higher
Criminal Court, where the current hearing of Ergenekon suspects goes on. The indictment is 1454 pages
and indicts 52 people 37 of whom are still under arrest. The suspects were arrested between Jan. 10,
2009 and April 17, 2009. (11th wave and later on)
27 July 2009
HSYK (The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors) and Justice Ministery reached a compromise on
the appointment of Ergenekon prosecutors.
Earlier, members of HSYK demanded the reassignment of the judges and prosecutors of the ongoing
Ergenekon probe, while Justice Ministry resisted this demand. This led to a three week deadlock which
was finally resolved on 27 July with the decision that Ergenekon prosecutors would keep their positions,
but a second name, Istanbul Vice Chief Public Prosecutor Olcay Seçkin, would also be assigned to the
prosecution team. Ministry of Justice would launch an inquiry into the complaints and charges against the
Ergenekon prosecutors, if sufficient evidence exists. Three week deadlock created a huge public
controversy, while both HSYK and ministry accused each other for exceeding their powers. The debates
were triggered when the photos of a meeting between Ali Suat Ertosun, a member of HSYK, and Engin
Aydın, an Ergenekon suspect, appeared on the journals.
Munitions
A common objection raised by detractors of the investigation is that the group does not have the wherewithal to
carry out large-scale militant acts. This section aims to clarify what is known about the munitions
presented as evidence. This is also of relevance to linking acts allegedly carried out by the
organization, as it has been alleged that weapons of the same type and serial number were found in
several locations. Debate has focused in particular on the grenades, which can be uniquely
identified by the fuse type (Turkish: fünye grubu) and batch number (Turkish: kafile numarası).[159]
According to police officials, "HGR DM 41" indicates German origin, SPLITTER denotes
a fragmentation grenade, "COMP-B" means composition B, "LOS" indicates European production up
to NATO standards, while the number following "FMP" indicates the batch.[160]


Akhisar and Eyüp
One of the two grenades recovered in Akhisar, Manisa had the serial number HGR DM 41 SPLITTER
COMP-B LOS FMP 24. Another grenade from Eyüp, İstanbul had the serial number HGR DM 41
COMP-B LOS FMR-24.[160]
Urla, İzmir (1999)
One of the ten grenades had the serial number HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 16.[160]
Şemdinli (2005)
Two grenades used in the Şemdinli incident on 9 November 2005 were found to bear the serial
number HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 134.[161]
Cumhuriyet (2006)
Alparslan bombed the offices of the newspaper Cumhuriyet in May 2006. The grenades did not go
off in his first two attempts; he succeeded on his third. The NATO standard, Makine ve Kimya
Endüstrisi Kurumu (MKE) model 44 grenades had the following serial numbers:[159]
TAPA M 204 A 2/KF-MKE-91 12-77 (5 May 2006)
TAPA M 204 A 2/KF-MKE-173 9-85 (10 May 2006)








TAPA M 204 A 2/KF-MKE-91 12-77 (11 May 2006)
The part before the slash denotes the fuse type, while the part after it denotes the batch number.
For example, the batch number of the first entry means 'batch 91, December 1977'. The army
bought 8800 such grenades from the MKE in 1978.[94]
Ümraniye, İstanbul (12 June 2007)
The serial numbers of some of the 27 grenades found in Ümraniye are:[161]
HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 16
HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 24
HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 22
TAPA M 204 A2/KF-MKE-169 5-85[159]
These grenades are registered to the Hasdal barracks in Istanbul.[162]
Fikret Emek (26 June 2007)
The recovered materiel included 11 kg of C-3, a telescopic rifle, a Kalashnikov, a shotgun, M-16
shells, 12 grenades (10 from the MKE), smoke bombs, 12 210g TNT setups, 6 500g TNT moulds, a
1.5 kg TNT mould, a 1 kg demolition block, ignition munitions. This is sufficient to flatten a twelvefloor reinforced concrete structure, with each floor over 400 m2.[163] The grenades have serial
number TAPA M204 A2/KF-MKE-91 12-77, matching the ones from
the Cumhuriyet attack.[104][159]
Trabzon (13 December 2008)
With the help of a tip-off on 3 December 2008,[164] the Trabzon police found nine grenades of the
same batch number as those in Ümraniye. In nearby Yomra, the police seized a gun and eight
7.65 mm bullets for it, a Kalashnikov rifle and three chargers, a total of 420 7.62 mm Kalashnikov
bullets and a grenade. In the city, eight grenades were found; seven hidden inside a washing
machine, and another in an oven. Trabzon governor Nuri Okutan said that none of the suspects
were public officials or members of the military.[165] The serial numbers of the Trabzon grenades
are:[161]
HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 143
HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 197
HGR DM 41 SPLITTER COMP-B LOS FMP 125
The grenades in Ümraniye had also been found following a tip-off in Trabzon. However, the former
tip-off was to the gendarmerie rather than the police.[164]
Mustafa Dönmez (7 January 2009)
22 grenades, over 100 bullets, 1 Kalashnikov, and 4 pistols were found in Dönmez's vacation house
in Sakarya.[104]
İbrahim Şahin (7 January 2009)
Three drawings and 9 unlicensed Glock pistols were found in the home of special forces police chief
İbrahim Şahin. The drawings led to the excavation of 8000 bullets (mostly Uzi), 2 light-weight antitank weapons, 1 kg of plastic explosives, 10 hand grenades whose serial numbers had been
removed and 10 smoke bombs. The recovered weapons were determined to be buried in July 2008
(the month generals Eruygur and Tolon were detained). They are reported to be different from the
ones that were entrusted to Şahin's department and went missing afterSusurluk scandal.[166]
Ergenekon Terror Organization Against the Law and State
Ergenekon Terror Organization (ETO) is an armed terrorist organization in accordance to Turkish Penal
Code (TCK) as well as Law on the Fight Against Terrorism. The armed criminal attacks committed by the
organization have fit well enough to the terrorism defined in the Turkish Penal Code. These actions were
classified as the crimes against the State and Public Order within the Turkish Penal Code.
As an illegal armed organization, ETO exhibits several similarities to other terrorist groups operating in
Turkey in terms of its organizational goals, foundation, structure and activities.
ETO, like other terrorist organizations in Turkey, violated the laws in chapters 4 and 5 under section 4 of
Turkish penal code (TCK). For example, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has committed the crime of
“Weakening or Destroying or Seizing the Authority of the State”, Article 302; other terrorist organizations
like Turkish Hizballah and DevSol (DHKP/C) have violated the laws at Article 309 of penal code, which
specifies the “Crimes against the Constitution.” In a similar way, ETO has violated the crimes defined
under the Article 311 and 312, which state the “Crimes against the Legislative and Executive Branches” in
the Turkish Penal Code.
ETO was designated as a terrorist organization by the Turkish National Police and National Intelligence
Organization (MIT).
ETO established a hierarchial organizational structure, but relies heavily on cooperative relationships
among its members. The presence of ex-military and retired flag rank officers within the group
membership made it easier for the organization’s paramilitary structure.
The organization operates with a dual structure, the first was established formally and the second
informally. Both continued to operate professionally in accordance to ETO’s goals. When all political and
societal activities were managed and conducted by its formal branch, whereas all other illegal activities
were directed by its covert informal branch in great secrecy. It was discovered during the investigation
that both members of formal and informal branches have never appeared in public together, however,
the relationship continued between the leadership of these branches at a certain level; in fact the
leadership of these two branches has managed to establish an equal authority for management of the
organization. The investigation revealed that some gang members used aliases and secretly kept in touch
with other members on a regular basis, however, when these people were asked about such meetings,
they insisted othwerwise.
ETO works on a highly detailed doctrinaire discipline. Documents found in the homes of its leaders later
revealed that the organization was strictly faithful to this doctrinaire discipline; it managed all its activities
based on the stated purposes by employing the exact tactics that were instructed on these same
documents.
The similarity in modus operandi of these two branches of ETO, formal and informal, was understood
from the these same documents as well as their action plans. For example, while assassination plans
against the people who would not serve their purpose were instructed as a modus operandi for its
informal branch, whereas to group and involve the civil society organizations more often in their influence
to political decision making process was suggested as tactics in these documents and all were succesfully
employed by ETO. That’s why ETO’s modus operandi must be analyzed hand in hand with its instructional
manuals. For example, ETO’s peaciful looking mass civil meetings, which was coordinated by its formal
branch, coincided to the time of the assassination of a Council of State Judge, which was committed by
its informal branch, indicated the ETO’s plans as in form of violent and non-violent nature.
ETO was also distinguished itself from other terrorist groups operating in Turkey in some aspects. Unlike
typical terrorist groups in Turkey that aimed to destroy the “constitutional order” and “territorial integrity”
of the country, ETO emerged as a group that has attacked the democratic order. To reach its aim, the
terrorist organization has established different work areas and created its membership from various
fields. ETO members interfered into presidential elections of some political parties; formed bogus
terrorist organizations; extended its operations from underground crime world to the entertainment
world. The organization was able establish a network from retired soldiers to ex-soldiers and ex-cons to
white-color occupations. The government tactics that were employed successfully against other similar
terrorist organizations did not work against the ETO; in fact, such attempts were always curtained
professionally by some hidden ETO members who were inside the government structure, political arena,
press and the organized crime. Many investigations went into dead end and left the perpetrators
unknown. This once more proved that the organization had the capability of postmodern structure which
went beyond the detection of classical counter-terrorism tactics and standard security assessments. To
achieve its goals, ETO showed a great skill of an organizational-operational structure to commit crimes
nationwide; it has the ability to eliminate the legislative and executive organs by force; adequacy in terms
of its armed and unarmed members and determination to commit acts in terms of intensity of attacks.
One of the most striking aspects of ETO is its intelligence network as well as the use of its network
efficiently. In this context, ETO has leaked into some target groups and was able to gather intelligence
via professional methods.
ETO has used the religious and national feelings of the people to reach out its political purposes by
abusing the sensitive issues like Cyprus and flag in their rhetoric’s professionally.
The most striking aspect that distinguished ETO from other similar groups is its strong structure and
effects to decision making process within the state mechanism. Because of its configuration and
construction, ETO has not been detected through all these years. During the searches in the homes and
offices of ETO members with search warrants, a lot of documents and notes were seized. These
documents later revealed how the organization was able to reach its hands into the top secret
government documents and to monitor the highest members of the government. More surprisingly,
seized weapons and explosives belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces indicated the level of danger
created by ETO to the national security.
In detection and exposure of ETO, a new code within the Turkish Criminal Procedure Law, which was
passed on June 1, 2005, provided a big help to the Prosecutors, who were given special authority. Judgeapproved warrants that allowed prosecutors a big power to use evidences retrieved via physical trace,
wiretapping, forensic investigation methods, and secret witnesses. Several other officials assisted judges
and prosecutors in many stages of this legal process. Such provisions led the arrest, questioning and
detention of many suspects within the rule of law.
Today, ETO has been on trial based on two reasons. First, the organization has been accused of
eliminating the democratically elected legislative and executive organs of the state by force; second,
using its covert agents within the government, ETO has managed to pose a great danger to the national
security and Turkish government officials by putting their lives in grave danger.
Ergenekon arrests
On 21 January 2008, news broke of a major operation by Turkish police against an ultranationalist
network known as Ergenekon. Commentators have argued that a number of
political assassinations originally assumed to be unconnected are in fact linked to leading
figures in this network, including the assassinations of a priest, Father Andreas Santoro, in
Trabzon (2006), Hrant Dink in Istanbul (2007) and a judge in Ankara in 2006.
The name Ergenekon (which comes from an old Turkish legend about the origins of the
Turkish people in Central Asia) was made public in a book by journalists Can Dundar and
Celal Kazadagli in 1997. In their book, entitled Ergenekon – The State inside the State, a
former Turkish naval general (Erol Mutercimler) told the authors that he had first learned in
1971 of the existence of:
“an organization above the Government, the General Staff and the bureaucracy. It was
founded on the initiative of the CIA and the Pentagon after 27 May [1960, the first
military coup].”
He also told Dundar that he started to investigate and discovered that “there were generals,
security personnel, professors, journalists, businessmen, average people inside it. Small units
that we nowadays call “gangs” are used as triggers by the larger organization called
Ergenekon.” Dundar notes that such entities were set up in other NATO countries as well
during the Cold War, but in Turkey’s case, it was never dismantled.
A serious investigation against Ergenekon only began in the summer of 2007 when munitions
and weapons29 were found in a house in the Umraniye district of Istanbul. Little was known
by the public until January 2008 because of a press embargo imposed to safeguard the
investigation. Then on 21 January 2008, 37 suspects were arrested on suspicion of being
members of an ultra-nationalist network30 (Bianet).
In March 2008, journalist Samil Tayyar, Ankara correspondent of the Star daily newspaper,
published another book, Operation Ergenekon, giving an account of the deeds and ideology
of this ultra-nationalist network.31 In an interview on 2 March, Tayyar explained his findings:
“Ergenekon is a structure targeting the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the EU
process, using all kinds of illegal methods to reach their aims.”32
In his book, Tayyar also claims high-ranking generals attempted to organise coups in 2003
and 2004 against the AKP government.
“The normalization process which began when in 2004 the coup (planning) generals
retired from the Turkish General Staff, created a more secure environment for Turkish
democracy. But when the opposition on the anti-AKP and anti-EU axis lost hope for a
coup or a military warning to the government, they went underground from 2005
onwards.” (Operation Ergenekon, p. 11)
Tayyar alleges that many of the political assassinations of recent years are linked to this
organization. The strategy of this group, he claims, was not only to organize attacks against
the government, liberal intellectuals and minority leaders, but also to attack Kemalist
newspapers and intellectuals and then blame Islamists.
Oktay Yildirim, a retired general whose fingerprints, according to Tayyar, quoting the
prosecution, were found on grenades discovered in the Umraniye raids, allegedly had detailed
information about Ergenekon’s structure on his confiscated computer. This led to more raids
in Bursa and Eskisehir, and the collection of further information. This has brought about the
arrest of up to 50 persons to date, including former military personnel, nationalist lawyers,
politicians and journalists.
According to Tayyar, the investigation would not have been possible without collaboration
between civil and military forces. In the interview with Sunday’s Zaman on 2 March33, he
underlines that within the armed forces the unease about Ergenekon had become stronger:
“I think (Chief of General Staff Gen. Ya�ar) Buyukanit, who will retire this August,
indirectly contributed to the operation against Ergenekon… This is why there is a very
serious reaction from the nationalists toward Buyukanit; they are not happy about his
impartiality. Actually when you look at transcripts of the telephone conversations of the
Ergenekon detainees, you can see the heavy cursing in them against Buyukanit.”
On 21 March 200834, seven more persons were arrested, including Dogu Perincek,
chairperson of the Workers’ Party, Ilhan Selcuk, columnist at the Cumhuriyet newspaper and
Kemal Alemdaroglu, a former rector of Istanbul University.
Who are these people now arrested and charged with forming a terrorist organization with the
aim of overthrowing the current government?
Veli Kucuk
One prominent figure who was arrested is Veli Kucuk. He is widely considered by the press
to be a former leader of JITEM (Jandarma Istihbarat ve Terorle Mucadele), the Gendarmerie
Intelligence and Anti-Terror unit which played a role in the fight against the PKK in South
East Anatolia.
It has never been officially acknowledged that JITEM even exists. However, Kucuk himself
was quoted in Today’s Zaman on 30 January 200835 as acknowledging his own role as
“founder of JITEM.” Kucuk was active during the war against the PKK.
33 http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=3266
34 http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/105802/more-detentions-and-arrests-in-ergenekoncase
- 11 -
~ www.esiweb.org ~
In an interview with Today’s Zaman on 30 January 200836, informant Abdulkadir Aygan,
who was allegedly involved in JITEM activities for many years, talked about Kucuk’s role as
JITEM group commander in the years 1990-91:
“JITEM’s headquarters was in a large building with two floors. All personnel in the
building used to wear civilian clothes. The vehicles used in official service had civilian
plates; however, these were the gendarmerie’s registered vehicles. It is certain that he
[Kucuk] was one of the founders of the organization. However, his assertion that he
founded JITEM alone is not accurate. I think that he is trying to protect the masterminds
and prove that he is loyal to them.”
JITEM features in at least two official reports as well. One is the report from January 1997
by Kutlu Savas, special rapporteur of the Prime Minister’s Office about the Susurluk
scandal37 which exposed the connections between the security forces, politicians and
organised crime in operations against the PKK. The Savas report38 argued that JITEM
existed:
“Even if the Gendarmerie’s high command continues to deny it, the existence of JITEM
is an unavoidable fact. It may be the case that JITEM no longer exists, that it was
disbanded, that its personnel was transferred to other units, that the documents were
archived. There are however, a number of agents who served in JITEM, who are alive
today. The existence of JITEM was moreover, no mistake. JITEM was formed out of
necessity.”39
In 2002, Veli Kucuk wrote on the website www.ozturkler.com (“the true Turks”), that “the
way of the great Turkish nation is through Ergenekon”. The site was maintained by Sedat
Peker who Turkish media claim had served with Kucuk in the gendarmerie in Kocaeli in the
1990s. In 2007, Peker was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for involvement in organised
crime. He is currently in prison and was recently interrogated by the prosecutor in the
Ergenekon investigation.
Many Turkish papers also reported that the investigations have revealed a plan to assassinate
Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk. According to daily Posta, Veli Kucuk had tried to
arrange for a hit man to target Pamuk through the contacts of a former army sergeant,
Muhammed Yuce.
Kemal Kerincsiz
Lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz is another key figure in the nationalist movement in Turkey, a
revered figure among nationalists40 and founder of the Great Union of Lawyers (Buyuk
Hukukcular Birligi), a right wing NGO. In January 2008, he was arrested for being a member
of “a terrorist organization” with the aim of promoting instability.
According to Bianet, Kerincsiz
“first came to public attention when he filed a complaint to stop a conference entitled
‘The Ottoman Armenians in the Period of the Declining Empire’ scheduled for May
2005. The conference finally took place on 23 September, but only because the
organisers were able to circumvent the ban by hosting the conference at a venue not
mentioned in the ban.”41
Kerincsiz used the sections of the Penal Code that curtail freedom of expression, such as Art.
301, to sue journalists, authors and academics. Ioannis Grigoriadis describes this strategy in a
paper in October 2006:
“Kerincsiz skillfully exploited the remaining illiberal traits of the Turkish criminal
legislation, as well as the failure of judicial authorities to readjust the interpretation and
implementation of existing legislation on liberal lines… Kerincsiz targeted an increasing
number of Turkish intellectuals who personified the liberal democratic face of republican
Turkey, as well as minorities.”42
Kerincsiz and the Great Union of Lawyers were responsible for most of the trials based on
article 301. These included the trials of:
� Nobel prize winning author Orhan Pamuk, charged in 2005 for comments on the
Armenian and Kurdish questions;
� Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, charged repeatedly in 2005 and 2006 for
denigrating Turkishness;
� Writer Elif Safak, charged in September 2006 for passages of her book “The Bastard
of Istanbul”;
� Journalists such as Murat Belge, Ismet Berkan, Hasan Cemal, Erol Katircioglu, Haluk
Sahin, charged in 2006.
Kerincsiz also staged several demonstrations in front of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate,
demanding its expulsion from Turkey. The accusation of the prosecution is that many of
these actions were closely coordinated with other parts of Ergenekon to prepare an
atmosphere for assassinations.
Sevgi Erenerol
Sevgi Erenerol, who was also arrested, is the spokesperson for the Turkish Orthodox
Patriarchate, and sister of the current primate Papa Eftim IV. The Turkish Orthodox
Patriarchate is a strange organization: it was founded during the War of Turkish Independence
in 1922 by ethnic Greeks, who supported the Turkish troops43 (before the time when most of
the Greek population of Turkey was exchanged with the Turkish population of Greece under
the Lausanne Treaty) to oppose the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Istanbul.
The church is something of a family enterprise: Sevgi’s grandfather was the first patriarch.
After the population exchange in 1924 – which forced all Anatolian Greeks to leave Turkey –
and following the move of the Erenerol family to Istanbul, there has been no community of
believers left, aside from the family. This has not stopped the church accumulating wealth
with support from the authorities, however.
On 30 January 2008, Hurriyet wrote about “a patriarchate without community, but real
estate”.44 The Church currently owns three churches and many buildings in the centre of
Istanbul seized from the Greek Orthodox Patriarch. Mustafa Akyol wrote on 2 February 2008
that the “mini-size but super-rich Turkish Orthodox Church has become a devotee of the most
radical version of its founding ideology”.45
According to daily Milliyet, the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul served as the place
for regular Ergenekon meetings.46 Erenerol has herself been linked to the extreme right for
many years. She was once a candidate of the nationalist MHP for Parliament.
Dogu Perincek
In March 2008 the offices of the small radical nationalist Worker’s Party (IP) were raided by
the police. Its leader Dogu Perincek was arrested on charges of “being a senior member of a
terrorist organization and obtaining and possessing classified documents”47 (Today’s Zaman).
According to Taraf daily, material was found at IP’s headquarters which included detailed
descriptions of the security protocol for Chief of General Staff Yasar Buyukanit’s visits to
two cities, as well as detailed drawings of court room buildings in Ankara. This is seen by
some as evidence that Ergenekon was plotting further assassinations to be blamed on
“Islamists”. Perincek denies the allegations. He suggested that the Ergenekon investigation
constituted an attempt to “exhaust the Turkish Army”48 (Today’s Zaman) with unfounded
allegations.
***
The number of individuals implicated in the Ergenekon investigation is growing by the day.
The list of those arrested reads like a who’s who of extreme right-wing nationalists, hardline
Kemalists, retired military, mobsters and nationalist intellectuals.
� Ergun Poyraz: His bestselling book “Children of Moses: Tayyip and Emine” suggests
that Prime Minister Erdogan’s rose to power as part of a “Zionist conspiracy.” He
wrote a similar book about Abdullah Gul. As reported by Today’s Zaman on 31
March 2008, a CD found at the nationalist Workers Party (IP) headquarters reveals
that Poyraz received payments from JITEM!49
� Fikri Karadag: a retired military officer, today officially leader of the ultranationalist
Association for the Union of Patriotic Forces.
� Muzaffer Tekin: arrested earlier in the context of the investigation of the assassination
of Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin, and injuring 4 other members of the State Council
in Ankara in May 2006, which triggered anti-AKP demonstrations: Kemalist media
had claimed that the murder was the result of “Islamic fundamentalism”.50
� Sedat Peker, Sami Hostan (also called ”Sami the Albanian”), Ali Yasak (“Drej Ali”)
and other alleged ultranationalist mafia figures.
According to numerous newspaper reports (such as Stargundem51 on 26 January 2008), the
current investigation has already found links between the Ergenekon group and the attack on
the State Council in 2006. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecution has received a photo in
which retired general Veli Kucuk is seen with Alparslan Arslan, the murder suspect currently
on trial. Phone calls between the two, from before the attack, have also allegedly been
recorded.
European Parliament Resolution on Operation Gladio
On November 22, 1990, the European Parliament passed a resolution on Operation Gladio.
Joint resolution replacing B3-2021, 2058, 2068, 2078 and 2087/90
A. having regard to the revelation by several European governments of the existence for 40 years of a
clandestine parallel intelligence and armed operations organization in several Member States of the
Community,
B. whereas for over 40 years this organization has escaped all democratic controls and has been run by
the secret services of the states concerned in collaboration with NATO,
C. fearing the danger that such clandestine network may have interfered illegally in the internal political
affairs of Member States or may still do so,
D. whereas in certain Member States military secret services (or uncontrolled branches thereof) were
involved in serious cases of terrorism and crime as evidenced by, various judicial inquiries,
E. whereas these organizations operated and continue to operate completely outside the law since they
are not subject to any parliamentary control and frequently those holding the highest government and
constitutional posts are kept in the dark as to these matters,
F. whereas the various 'Gladio' organizations have at their disposal independent arsenals and military
ressources which give them an unknown strike potential, thereby jeopardizing the democratic structures
of the countries in which they are operating or have been operating,
G. greatly concerned at the existence of decision-making and operational bodies which are not subject to
any form of democratic control and are of a completely clandestine nature at a time when greater
Community cooperation in the field of security is a constant subject of discussion,
1. Condemns the clandestine creation of manipulative and operational networks and Calls for a full
investigation into the nature, structure, aims and all other aspects of these clandestine organizations or
any splinter groups, their use for illegal interference in the internal political affairs of the countries
concerned, the problem of terrorism in Europe and the possible collusion of the secret services of
Member States or third countries;
2. Protests vigorously at the assumption by certain US military personnel at SHAPE and in NATO of the
right to encourage the establishment in Europe of a clandestine intelligence and operation network;
3. Calls on the governments of the Member States to dismantle all clandestine military and paramilitary
networks;
4. Calls on the judiciaries of the countries in which the presence of such military organizations has been
ascertained to elucidate fully their composition and modus operandi and to clarify any action they may
have taken to destabilize the democratic structure of the Member States;
5. Requests all the Member States to take the necessary measures, if necessary by establishing
parliamentary committees of inquiry, to draw up a complete list of organizations active in this field, and
at the same time to monitor their links with the respective state intelligence services and their links, if
any, with terrorist action groups and/or other illegal practices;
6. Calls on the Council of Ministers to provide full information on the activities of these secret intelligence
and operational services;
7. Calls on its competent committee to consider holding a hearing in order to clarify the role and impact
of the 'Gladio' organization and any similar bodies;
8. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Secretary-General
of NATO, the governments of the Member States and the United States Government."
Who said What about Ergenekon Case
“I am convinced that those men really did want to kill me. In my eyes, there is absolutely no reason that
would somehow lessen the enormity of what they were planning. I was definitely convinced, from the
Ergenekon allegations, that in fact some murderers, including unfortunately some retired military officials
and mafia types, had organized, and were in fact planning on killing me. And so, I look at those who are
trying to portray the Ergenekon crimes as less than they really are with the same eye -- I am ashamed
for them.”
Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize-Winner Novelist
7 September 2008
“To get to the bottom of the conspiracy, it is essential that the Istanbul court fully investigate the
allegations of military involvement in coup plots, including those in the Örnek diaries, and probe possible
connections between alleged coup-plotters and the Ergenekon gang.”
Human Rights Watch
17 October 2008
“The trial which began in October 2008, presents an opportunity to finally shed light upon the backroom
dealers responsible for political murders and decades of terror in the name of state.”
European Parliament's Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union
19 March 2009
“If these detentions mean that justice will be implemented even into ‘the deepest state,’ then it’s
excellent news. Now it is too early to comprehend what exactly is going on, however, if this means that
generals who were hitherto accepted as ‘immune’ will also be responsible to the court, then it is an
encouraging sign.”
Andrew Duff
Vice chairman of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee
3 July 2008
“We have to look at the issue from two angles. When we look from the angle of the rule of law; if these
people do really want to topple a party via coup, then they should be tried and imprisoned if they are
found guilty. Every country which wants to enter the EU has to take its military under civilian control. No
EU country can tolerate the understanding of ‘state within the state. The second angle is the fact that
political conflict in Turkey is gradually becoming dangerous. Here, I have hesitations. We are worried
over where this affair will lead to. But in any case, the EU will follow the developments in Turkey very
closely.”
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff
Rapporteur for Turkey in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)
3 July 2008
“Of course we are concerned when journalists are detained. We are expecting an explanation on this
issue. However, in regard to the Ergenekon gang, it is extremely positive that prosecutors have moved
and dealt actively with those who are involved in illegal activities. We applaud deepening of the
Ergenekon investigation. But I also have to emphasize that all kinds of judicial investigations should be
carried out independently.”
Jan Marinus Wiersma
Vice Chairman of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in the European Parliament
3 July 2008
“EU is pleased that Turkish prosecutors are digging up some dirt, which would not have happened 10
years ago. This indicates the progress Turkey has made. Besides, it is an opportunity for Turkey to show
that it is a country of the rule of law”.
Jan Marinus Wiersma
Vice Chairman of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in the European Parliament
12 April 2009
“I remember the Susurluk debate. Şemdinli could be mentioned, too. I really hope that this finally leads
to results, that people find out who did what in the past and who is involved in such kinds of things that
are beyond democracy and that cannot be justified. And it should be very clear that a coup d'etat is
under no conditions acceptable in a democracy. That, however, does not mean that the activities of the
government justify everything. It has to be based on democratic rule of law and the constitution.”
Cem Özdemir
Co-Chairman of the German Green Party
11 July 2008
“The European Parliament welcomes the beginning of the trial against those accused of being members
of the Ergenekon criminal organisation; encourages the authorities to continue investigations and to fully
uncover the organisation's networks which reach into the state structures; is concerned about reports
regarding the treatment of defendants in this case; urges the Turkish authorities to provide them with a
fair trial and to adhere strictly to the principles of the rule of law.”
Turkey’s 2008 Progress Report Draft
21 November 2008
“There have always been rumors about the deep state,” (when asked about the waves of detention of
more than 100 people accused of being members of Ergenekon) “These prosecutors are heroes.” “The
process is dangerous, since it can have an earthquake effect. But it is also very healthy,” (when reminded
that some believe the investigation is linked to the closure case and claim it is an attempt to silence the
critics of the government) “Whenever there is a good development, somehow it is seen as a trick of the
AKP,” (adding that again it was up to the civil society to oversee the process.)
Claudia Roth
Chairwoman of the German Green Party
25 July 2008
“Well, first, I think those events (Ergenekon) were very serious, and they have to be taken as they are, I
mean, very seriously. Of course, the process of trial and investigation should be done correctly. Those
sorts of activities that go against the established democracy have to be investigated, and if proven, they
need to be punished. We will support it if it is done in the correct manner. No doubt about that!
It is an opportunity to make clear the truth of events. As I said, they were very serious events. To revolt
against a constitutional government is something that has to be punished. I hope very much that truth
comes out of the investigation by the appropriate handling of this case.”
Javier Solana
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union
04 April 2009
“Ergenekon is the cleansing of Turkey's dirty past, but please play it by the rules and the book. If you
don't, it will turn against you and all the attention will go to the procedures.”
Joost Lagendijk
Former Co-Chairman of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission
28 February 2009
“Though the CHP is our sister party, we do not share the same ideas with Mr. Baykal on the Ergenekon
affair. We want this issue to be enlightened fully. We believe the Ergenekon case is a very serious one for
Turkish democracy. The investigation should go until the very end.”
Maria Eleni Koppa
EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee Vice Chairman
08 January 2009
“To bring these kinds of networks to light is difficult for every country, where does the deep state start
and where do its extensions reach? In my opinion, by having the judiciary investigate these questions,
Turkey is doing the right thing. The completion of this process will be a further step on the way to
Turkey's modernization.”
Graham Watson
Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament
22 January 2009
“Turkish Gladio was unique. Turkey was on the Gladio coordination committee, but it was not on the
political committee. The Turkish organization had a more independent structure. I can assure you that
Turkey always held a special place. Turkey never allowed NATO to interfere in its internal affairs. I have
no evidence but it seems that Turkish army maintained the Gladio structure in order to preserve the
secular system.”
Francesca Cossiga
Former President of Italy
17 February 2009
“You must go to the end in the investigation. There are such significant accusations that you have to go
to the end to clarify things. Otherwise this is so dangerous for democracy.”
Felice Casson
Prosecutor of Gladio case in Italy
28 April 2008
“In July, the indictment was issued in a groundbreaking prosecution against an alleged ultranationalist
network, Ergenekon, with links to state institutions.”
Amnesty International, Report 2009
Ergenekon Case should keep on touching untouchable elitists having been fed by militarism so far which
is suitable for the matter of its indictment and should not focus on wrong channels by diverging from its
target... HRRA endeavours to remind that the political murders has suddenly stopped with the start of
Ergenekon Case, however it is tried to start again by some impudent surroundings by creating many
diverse excuses. Nevertheless, Ergenekon Case should keep away from the actual knowledge pollution
and should focus on its own matter which is being too much expanded.
Human Rights Agenda Association (HRRA)
Press Release (Ergenekon Case, Democracy and Human Rights)
15 April 2009