Explosive claims from key Ergenekon suspect
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 12, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - Ergenekon suspect İbrahim Şahin named the Chief of Staff General İlker Başbuğ as the man behind the new anti-terror unit he would be asked to head, according to details of his testimony revealed yesterday. Air force command proceeded with its own investigation
A former police special operations officer caught in a recent Ergenekon raid has claimed that Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ was aware the ex-police officer was asked to head up a new anti-terror unit, daily Radikal reported yesterday.
Soon after ex-police special operations deputy chief, İbrahim Şahin, was arrested police found a map in his house that led them to a hidden weapons cache. They also discovered a list containing names of many police and military officers, some also indicted in the Ergenekon case, which police have used to connect Şahin to the alleged gang. Şahin has maintained the list was in relation to the new clandestine unit he was instructed to form. Military officials have consistently denied any such instructions were given.Şahin’s text messages, electronically monitored by police, mentioned a "Buğ Pasha."
"My Buğ pasha knows, they must be hundred percent reliable," read one message sent to another detained Ergenekon suspect, Lt. Taylan Özgür Kırmızı. "I was told that the president, as well as the Interior Minister Beşir Atalay, signed the order to create a new unit," Şahin told the prosecutor, Zekeriya Öz. Şahin said he was to be appointed head of "S-1" on Jan. 12 in a ceremony had he not been detained.
A document titled "to my honorable Chief of Staff" was also recovered from Şahin’s house, which according to Şahin was to be offered to the General Staff during the ceremony.
The General Staff has denied Şahin’s testimony, with a written statement released Jan. 12. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek has also denied any offer to Şahin was ever made.
Meanwhile, the Air Force Command has denied that six of the seven people arrested yesterday and Tuesday were active duty officers, contrary to first reports.
The Workers’ Party, or İP’s, deputy leader, Mehmet Bedri Gültekin, was among those arrested after the Air Force Command began an investigation into claims of "Headquarter Houses" that brought together İP members and military officers on duty, according to the Ergenekon indictment. İP vice-chair, Hasan Basri Özbey, said the military prosecutor merely wanted to consult Gültekin and said "Headquarter Houses" was a sheer lie.
Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin rejected that the courts were divided in their allegiance, commenting on voice recordings attributed to the wife of retired Gen. Şener Eruygur, Mukaddes Eruygur, who said the 12th and 14th courts were "on their side." The 12th Court took the decision to release retired Gen. Hurşit Tolon, who had been under arrest in the Ergenekon case for seven months."Such an impression casts a shadow on justice," Minister Şahin said, but added that he was not sure whether the voice recording was real or not.
In the voice recordings, Mrs. Eruygur is heard speaking to Col. Nusret Demircan, the head of GATA Military Hospital Brain Surgery unit, and asking the military doctor whether her husband would be arrested again if he were released. A part of the record reveals that retired Gen. Eruygur, arrested but released due to health problems, was indeed in good health.
Arrested in January, ex-police officer Şahin gave detailed information to prosecutor Zekeriya Öz about the proposal, according to details of his testimony. Şahin, who suffered brain damage after a traffic accident in 2000, had pointed the finger at the General Staff's press information chief, Brig. Gen. Metin Gürak, as the general who gave him orders to designate personnel for the new "S-1" anti-terror unit and said he was told to select trustworthy military men and police.
A list titled "S-1" was found during a search of Şahin's house and featured several hundred policemen and soldiers already under arrest in the Ergenekon case.
Şahin also said he participated in regular meetings with the General Staff. "Metin Gürak, whom I refer to as Başbuğ Pasha’s number one, called me from an unknown number," he said.
The organization Şahin was setting up would be responsible for "cleaning out the interior of Turkey," according to Şahin’s own voice in a conversation recorded by police.
"The interior and exterior, relating to northern Iraq. Metin Gürak told me that all members would be Turks," Şahin had told Öz.
Şahin left a bulk of questions unanswered about death lists, indexes and house plans of non-Muslim and Alevi religious leaders' houses. He did not give information on the "Safir," which was referred to as an organization within the military in his conversations with Cengiz. In most of the conversations, Öz asked Şahin about Fatma Cengiz, an officer at the Kayseri Airborne Infantry Command who was sent to jail after a later wave of Ergenekon arrests.
"Asena sit. A duty arrives. The Armenian must be killed," read a text message he sent to Cengiz, presumably against the Armenian community leader in Sivas, Minas Duran Güler, whom Şahin tracked. Şahin did not elaborate on frequent hate speeches against non-Muslims in his conversations.
Şahin was convicted in 2000 as he was hospitalized for breach of duty that led to the disappearance of weapons in the Susurluk scandal. He was pardoned by former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in 2002 when he was diagnosed with memory loss.
Release Özbek say unions
Ergenekon drew widespread international reaction yesterday. Industry workers’ unions from Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan and the semi-autonomous regions of Gagauzia and Bashkortostan, as well as the International Eurasian Metal Workers’ Union, presided by an Ergenekon suspect currently under arrest, Mustafa Özbek, asked "independent Turkish courts" to release the "patriotic and well-known" union leader.
The Ergenekon case officially started when police discovered 27 grenades in a shanty house belonging to a retired noncommissioned officer in Istanbul in June 2007.
Prosecutors have alleged there is a secret ultra-nationalist group made up of retired and active military officers, writers, unionists and journalists who want to spread nationalist violence and overthrow the government by provoking a coup.
Most of the Ergenekon indictment, some 2,500 pages long, is based on six sacks of documents about an organization called "Ergenekon" discovered in 2001 at the house of Tuncay Güney, a controversial figure arrested for petty fraud but released soon afterward. Güney now lives in Canada. The Ergenekon case is shrouded in a mist of controversy with opposition parties claiming the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, is exploiting the case to suppress secular opposition. Serious criticism abounds concerning the arrests and detentions that violate the code of criminal procedure, according to some jurists.
Soon after ex-police special operations deputy chief, İbrahim Şahin, was arrested police found a map in his house that led them to a hidden weapons cache. They also discovered a list containing names of many police and military officers, some also indicted in the Ergenekon case, which police have used to connect Şahin to the alleged gang. Şahin has maintained the list was in relation to the new clandestine unit he was instructed to form. Military officials have consistently denied any such instructions were given.Şahin’s text messages, electronically monitored by police, mentioned a "Buğ Pasha."
"My Buğ pasha knows, they must be hundred percent reliable," read one message sent to another detained Ergenekon suspect, Lt. Taylan Özgür Kırmızı. "I was told that the president, as well as the Interior Minister Beşir Atalay, signed the order to create a new unit," Şahin told the prosecutor, Zekeriya Öz. Şahin said he was to be appointed head of "S-1" on Jan. 12 in a ceremony had he not been detained.
A document titled "to my honorable Chief of Staff" was also recovered from Şahin’s house, which according to Şahin was to be offered to the General Staff during the ceremony.
The General Staff has denied Şahin’s testimony, with a written statement released Jan. 12. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek has also denied any offer to Şahin was ever made.
Meanwhile, the Air Force Command has denied that six of the seven people arrested yesterday and Tuesday were active duty officers, contrary to first reports.
The Workers’ Party, or İP’s, deputy leader, Mehmet Bedri Gültekin, was among those arrested after the Air Force Command began an investigation into claims of "Headquarter Houses" that brought together İP members and military officers on duty, according to the Ergenekon indictment. İP vice-chair, Hasan Basri Özbey, said the military prosecutor merely wanted to consult Gültekin and said "Headquarter Houses" was a sheer lie.
Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin rejected that the courts were divided in their allegiance, commenting on voice recordings attributed to the wife of retired Gen. Şener Eruygur, Mukaddes Eruygur, who said the 12th and 14th courts were "on their side." The 12th Court took the decision to release retired Gen. Hurşit Tolon, who had been under arrest in the Ergenekon case for seven months."Such an impression casts a shadow on justice," Minister Şahin said, but added that he was not sure whether the voice recording was real or not.
In the voice recordings, Mrs. Eruygur is heard speaking to Col. Nusret Demircan, the head of GATA Military Hospital Brain Surgery unit, and asking the military doctor whether her husband would be arrested again if he were released. A part of the record reveals that retired Gen. Eruygur, arrested but released due to health problems, was indeed in good health.
Arrested in January, ex-police officer Şahin gave detailed information to prosecutor Zekeriya Öz about the proposal, according to details of his testimony. Şahin, who suffered brain damage after a traffic accident in 2000, had pointed the finger at the General Staff's press information chief, Brig. Gen. Metin Gürak, as the general who gave him orders to designate personnel for the new "S-1" anti-terror unit and said he was told to select trustworthy military men and police.
A list titled "S-1" was found during a search of Şahin's house and featured several hundred policemen and soldiers already under arrest in the Ergenekon case.
Şahin also said he participated in regular meetings with the General Staff. "Metin Gürak, whom I refer to as Başbuğ Pasha’s number one, called me from an unknown number," he said.
The organization Şahin was setting up would be responsible for "cleaning out the interior of Turkey," according to Şahin’s own voice in a conversation recorded by police.
"The interior and exterior, relating to northern Iraq. Metin Gürak told me that all members would be Turks," Şahin had told Öz.
Şahin left a bulk of questions unanswered about death lists, indexes and house plans of non-Muslim and Alevi religious leaders' houses. He did not give information on the "Safir," which was referred to as an organization within the military in his conversations with Cengiz. In most of the conversations, Öz asked Şahin about Fatma Cengiz, an officer at the Kayseri Airborne Infantry Command who was sent to jail after a later wave of Ergenekon arrests.
"Asena sit. A duty arrives. The Armenian must be killed," read a text message he sent to Cengiz, presumably against the Armenian community leader in Sivas, Minas Duran Güler, whom Şahin tracked. Şahin did not elaborate on frequent hate speeches against non-Muslims in his conversations.
Şahin was convicted in 2000 as he was hospitalized for breach of duty that led to the disappearance of weapons in the Susurluk scandal. He was pardoned by former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in 2002 when he was diagnosed with memory loss.
Release Özbek say unions
Ergenekon drew widespread international reaction yesterday. Industry workers’ unions from Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan and the semi-autonomous regions of Gagauzia and Bashkortostan, as well as the International Eurasian Metal Workers’ Union, presided by an Ergenekon suspect currently under arrest, Mustafa Özbek, asked "independent Turkish courts" to release the "patriotic and well-known" union leader.
The Ergenekon case officially started when police discovered 27 grenades in a shanty house belonging to a retired noncommissioned officer in Istanbul in June 2007.
Prosecutors have alleged there is a secret ultra-nationalist group made up of retired and active military officers, writers, unionists and journalists who want to spread nationalist violence and overthrow the government by provoking a coup.
Most of the Ergenekon indictment, some 2,500 pages long, is based on six sacks of documents about an organization called "Ergenekon" discovered in 2001 at the house of Tuncay Güney, a controversial figure arrested for petty fraud but released soon afterward. Güney now lives in Canada. The Ergenekon case is shrouded in a mist of controversy with opposition parties claiming the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, is exploiting the case to suppress secular opposition. Serious criticism abounds concerning the arrests and detentions that violate the code of criminal procedure, according to some jurists.