8-year-old murder tied to Ergenekon
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 17, 2008 00:00
ISTANBUL - Üzeyir Garih, the head of Alarko Holding, was murdered because he stopped giving financial aid to the Ergenekon gang, reported the daily Yeni Şafak yesterday.
Eight years have passed since Garih’s murder in Eyüp Sultan cemetery in Istanbul, yet the murder case is once again on the agenda following new allegations of links to the Ergenekon Gang, an illegal group accused of trying to topple the Turkish government by creating turmoil in the country.
In 1995, the Ergenekon gang planned to topple the Haydar Aliyev government in Azerbaijan and bring Elbulfez Elçibey to power instead, but Garih refused to financially support the coup attempt, leading to his murder, the daily wrote. The Yeni Şafak newspaper based its story on information taken from a source close to Garih. Retired Lt. Gen. Veli Küçük, who is among the suspected leaders of the gang, is a relative of Elçibey and assisted Alarko Holding in problems with the company's investments, primarily in Russia, Azerbaijan and other Turkic Republics in Central Asia.
Garih, one of the leading members of the Turkish Jewish community, was making regular donations to Ergenekon to compensate the work it did for the company, the daily claimed. Because of the increasing amount of company money going to "donations," the other partner in Alarko Holding, İshak Alaton, fell out with Garih, which resulted in Garih to halt donations. Gen. Küçük, at the same time, asked for money from connected business circles for the coup plan in Azerbaijan, from which Küçük was receiving important amounts of income. However, Garih refused Ğ despite several warnings from Küçük.
Meanwhile, different allegations appeared in the media about Yener Yermez, the convicted murderer of Garih. After his arrest, it was claimed that Yermez had a drug addiction and killed Garih when he refused to give money to him. However, Yermez in a written note to his lawyer, said the arrested Ergenekon suspect Ümit Sayın, an academic, advised him to tell police that he murdered the businessman because of religious reasons. Sayın talked to Yermez in the Forensic Medicine Institution in which Yermez was brought after the murder, the daily Radikal reported. Sayın was working in the institution at that time. A document used as evidence in Garih’s murder was lost during the murder investigation and found in the office of Sayın during the Ergenekon investigation. Yermez, who was sentenced to a lifetime in prison, was a soldier under retired Captain Fikri Karadağ, another suspect in the Ergenekon case, Yeni Şafak wrote the other day.
In 1995, the Ergenekon gang planned to topple the Haydar Aliyev government in Azerbaijan and bring Elbulfez Elçibey to power instead, but Garih refused to financially support the coup attempt, leading to his murder, the daily wrote. The Yeni Şafak newspaper based its story on information taken from a source close to Garih. Retired Lt. Gen. Veli Küçük, who is among the suspected leaders of the gang, is a relative of Elçibey and assisted Alarko Holding in problems with the company's investments, primarily in Russia, Azerbaijan and other Turkic Republics in Central Asia.
Garih, one of the leading members of the Turkish Jewish community, was making regular donations to Ergenekon to compensate the work it did for the company, the daily claimed. Because of the increasing amount of company money going to "donations," the other partner in Alarko Holding, İshak Alaton, fell out with Garih, which resulted in Garih to halt donations. Gen. Küçük, at the same time, asked for money from connected business circles for the coup plan in Azerbaijan, from which Küçük was receiving important amounts of income. However, Garih refused Ğ despite several warnings from Küçük.
Meanwhile, different allegations appeared in the media about Yener Yermez, the convicted murderer of Garih. After his arrest, it was claimed that Yermez had a drug addiction and killed Garih when he refused to give money to him. However, Yermez in a written note to his lawyer, said the arrested Ergenekon suspect Ümit Sayın, an academic, advised him to tell police that he murdered the businessman because of religious reasons. Sayın talked to Yermez in the Forensic Medicine Institution in which Yermez was brought after the murder, the daily Radikal reported. Sayın was working in the institution at that time. A document used as evidence in Garih’s murder was lost during the murder investigation and found in the office of Sayın during the Ergenekon investigation. Yermez, who was sentenced to a lifetime in prison, was a soldier under retired Captain Fikri Karadağ, another suspect in the Ergenekon case, Yeni Şafak wrote the other day.