GOOD MORNING--TURKEY PRESS SCAN ON JULY 8

--WHAT HAS BEEN ASKED OF THE TWO RET. GENERAL IN THEIR INTERROGATION

 

Two retired generals arrested as part of the Ergenekon operation responded to allegations surrounding documents found in their archives relating to Turkey's Chief of General Staff Yasar Buyukanit.

 

"I received these documents when I was commander of Turkey's Aegean Army, I don't know who sent them. These documents were archived as part of routine procedure then taken to my home when I retired," said Ret. General Hursit Tolon in response to a question regarding his knowledge of the documents.

 

"This is a plot. I learnt for the first time that the file includes an account on the movements and the personal relations relating to Gen. Buyukanit and people close to him. It is outrageous conduct to formulate such a file. It is not ethical," the second detainee, Ret. General Sener Eruygur said in response to his knowledge of the same documents.

-- EVERYBODY CRIED
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Turkish Football Federation (TFF) President Hasan Dogan, who died of heart attack on Saturday in Bodrum resort town of Mugla where he was spending his holiday, was laid to eternal rest on Monday. High ranking state officials including President Abdullah Gul, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and many ministers also attended funeral of Dogan in Fatih Mosque.
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-- THEY DIGGED 75 METERS AND ROBBED THE BANK
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Robbers entered a bank branch after digging 75 meters of tunnel last Friday and fled after stealing valuable goods and money of 11 customers in safe deposit boxes. The robbers worked as mine workers for three months to dig the 75 meters tunnel.
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MILLIYET

-- SUSPECT SAYS HE WARNED GENDARMERIE ABOUT ASSASSINATION ON TURKISH-ARMENIAN JOURNALIST
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One of the suspects in the case on the murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink told an Istanbul court on Monday that he had informed the gendarmerie several times about the assassination long time before it happened. Dink was shot dead outside the offices of his Agos weekly in Istanbul in January 2007. "I tried to stop Yasin from doing it. Then I told the gendarmerie five or six times that an assassination would take place. They told me that Yasin was under their watch," Coskun Igci said. He was referring to Yasin Hayal, one of the suspected masterminds of the murder. Eventually, it was not Hayal, but a man named Ogun Samast, who killed Dink.
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-- FOOTBALL FEDERATION HEAD LAID TO ETERNAL REST
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President of the Turkish Football Federation Hasan Dogan was laid to eternal rest on Monday after a funeral ceremony in Istanbul. President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan also attended the service along with a cabinet members. Dogan, 52, died of heart attack in the western resort town of Bodrum where he was spending his holiday. He was elected the president of TFF last February.
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-- DAILY REVEALS ANOTHER COUP ATTEMPT
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Turkish daily Taraf said Monday that the police had found what the newspaper claimed to be the plans of a third military coup attempt during a search in the office of the former gendarmerie forces commander Sener Eruygur, who was recently sent behind bars under an investigation into an alleged criminal network, known as "Ergenekon." The plan, under code name "Glove," is the third of its kind after two other alleged attempts, Sarikiz and Ayisigi.
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SABAH

-- SURPRISING STATEMENT FROM BAYKAL
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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal made a surprising statement on the closure case against ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). "A new Turkey will emerge after the Constitutional Court decision. AKP will feel relieved if the case is dismissed. The need to take the revenge of the case will disappear. Tension of Turkish politics will ease," he said.
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-- AYGUN CONCEALS THE "BIG BROTHER"
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Business leader Sinan Aygun, who was arrested under Ergenekon investigation, was asked who was the "big brother" he called on the phone. Aygun did not disclose "big brother's" name and said, "I will not tell it due to sensitivity of state." Aygun wanted to whisper the name to the judge, but the judge refused him.

 

VATAN

--LAST EMBRACING

Turkish Football Federation (TFF) President Hasan Dogan, who died of heart attack on Saturday in Bodrum resort town of Mugla where he was spending his holiday, was laid to eternal rest in Istanbul.

President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan carried the coffin of Dogan to the funeral car. Erdogan was calling Dogan as, "my friend, my brother."

--MYSTERY OF "BROTHER"

Chairperson of Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) Sinan Aygun, who was arrested on charges of being a member of "Ergenekon" terrorist
organization and "recording personal information illegally", was asked who the "brother" he referred to in his interrogation was. Aygun said he could not give the name because of his sensitivity about the state.

ATO Chairman Aygun said he could only explain this name to the judge in the court. It is not yet known whether Aygun gave this name to the judge.

The brother Aygun was speaking about who might be a high ranking state official.

CUMHURIYET

--RETIRED ARMY GENERAL DENIES "COUP DIARIES"

Former Naval Forces Commander Ozden Ornek rejected new reports about alleged diaries of what is said to give an account of two military coups attempts in 2004, came to be be known as "Sarikiz" (Blonde Girl) and "Ayisigi" (Moonlight). Ornek denied that the chronicles belonged to him.

--THREE MORE DIE OF CRIMEAN-CONGO FEVER

Three people died due to Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in Turkey on Monday. One person died in the Black Sea province of Samsun, another in the northwestern province of Canakkale and third one in Bursa.

RADIKAL

--ERGENEKON'S FUTURE IS RELATED TO CLOSURE CASE, BAYKAL

Main opposition CHP leader Deniz Baykal argued that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been seeking a revenge since the explosives found in a shanty house in Umraniye, Istanbul. He claimed the revenge was shaped in line with the closure case and said, "politics has never penetrated into such a case in Turkey."

He said Turkey would be a "new country" after the decision to be made by the court, adding that ruling AKP would not have to change if the case is dismissed.

"If such a decision is made by the court, the need to call for an account would disappear," Baykal said.

--ADM. ORNEK: THOSE DIARIES DO NOT BELONG TO ME

Retired admiral Ozden Ornek, who was claimed to be the writer of coup diaries that paved the way for the Ergenekon probe, issued a written statement.

"I have never had any business with those diaries. Such claims are beyond defamation and slander," Ornek said.

YENI SAFAK

--BLONDE GIRL IN GLOVES

Detailed plans of the preparations for the third coup were found at the office of retired general Sener Eruygur who was arrested in charges of coup attempt and establishing an armed gang.

Cosmic documents, containing new coup plan named "glove", were very important, sources said. The new plan "glove" includes names to be in charge at the coup, and also states targets and actions expressly. Documents about other two coup attempts, "moonlight" and "blonde girl", did not have such details.

--SENER ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT INTERIM REGIME

Former deputy prime minister Abdullatif Sener, who withdrew from politics as he saw a signal of crisis before the election, is now engaged in politics again with the hope of ruling AKP dissolution.

Sener, who acts like a "wise politician", is said to have met former president Suleyman Demirel.