Arms cache linked to the military

According to CNN Türk, contrary to what Chief of General Staff Gen. Ä°lker BaÅŸbuÄŸ said in late April, the 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.Â

A tip-off led police to land said to be owned by the Ä°stek Foundation, where 12 flame throwers, 10 hand grenades, grenade launchers and 20 percussion bombs were found on April 21.

The İstek Foundation, headed by Bedrettin Dalan, a former Istanbul mayor and the chairman of Yeditepe University’s board of trustees, argued that the land neighbored a military zone and the foundation was banned from doing anything there. "All access to the land is allowed under military supervision and it is currently being used as a training field for the Turkish Navy," the foundation said after the weapons cache was found. There is an arrest warrant for Dalan, currently in the United States for medical treatment, as part of the controversial Ergenekon investigation. The police arrested six people, two retired and four active military officers, as part of the investigation into the weapons cache.

The Makina Kimya Enstitüsü report was produced in response to a request by an Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office in charge of leading the controversial Ergenekon probe.

The Ergenekon case started after the discovery of 27 hand grenades June 12, 2007 in a shanty house in Istanbul. The resulting investigation led to scores of detentions, with prosecutors alleging the existence of an illegal gang that aimed to topple the government by instigating a coup in 2009 by initially spreading chaos and mayhem.

The investigation led to three other weapons caches in Eskişehir and two in Ankara. Speaking only a few days after the weapons in Poyrazköy were found, Gen. Başbuğ in a meeting with journalists in Ankara said none of the weapons found in the caches dug up as part of the Ergenekon probe were in the military’s inventory. He specifically denied the weapons found in Poyrazköy belonged to the military, noting that the Makina Kimya Enstitüsü also supplied weapons to the Police Department and exported arms. On May 1, a few days after Başbuğ’s remarks, the Police Department released a statement saying there were "no missing ammunition or weapons in the records of the National Police Department."

In the Makina Kimya Enstitüsü report, it was noted that the weapons list it was provided by the prosecutors was lacking certain numbers and the registration numbers from some of the weapons were scraped off, making it impossible to give sources of origin.