Friday, 9 January 2009
9 January 2009
ANKARA - Turkish Police in Ankara, capital of Turkey, discovered a munitions site in an investigation into the Ergenekon, so-called 'deep state' terrorist organization.
Weapons, flamethrowers and hand grenades found buried under the ground appear to date from the year 2004. Other excavations are under way in various areas of the city.
A large cache of weapons, ammunition and bombs was found yesterday buried underground in Ankara's Golbasi district, as a result of a police search based on a map found in the home of Ibrahim Sahin, a former head of the National Police Department's Special Operations Unit.
The operation came at a time when Sahin had ordered the assassination of non-Muslim minority leaders in Sivas.
Sahin was detained along with 36 others on Wednesday in the investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine network of groups and individuals accused of trying to overthrow the government. Thirty varieties of explosives and bombs as well as three lightweight anti-tank weapons (LAWs) were found buried underground. The newspapers wrapped around the weapons were from the year 2004, the police said. According to the initial official list, there were a large number of bullets for 9mm guns, two LAV weapons, 10 hand grenades whose serial number had been deleted and 10 smoke bombs used in training with colored smoke. Another boxed explosive and an ignition mine were found in the first phases of the excavation, the police said. The materials found have yet to be examined thoroughly at a police crime lab. There were also plastic explosives buried.
The excavation of the site started on Thursday and continued until midday. The teams resumed excavation on Friday and located the munitions.
Excavations were also launched in the Bala, Mamak, Emek, Bestepe, Saklibahce and Ataturk Orman Ciftligi (Ataturk Forest Farm) districts of the city to locate more weapons possibly buried in these areas.
The operation started when Şahin, whose phone conversations have been tapped by police for at least two months, gave the order to finalize plans to assassinate Armenian community members in the city of Sivas. Twelve others were detained in Sivas during Wednesday's operation. Police also found shocking evidence that the group was plotting to kill prominent figures including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Former Chief of General Staff Yaşar Büykanıt, Police Department Intelligence Unit Chief Ramazan Akyürek, journalist Fehmi Koru, author Orhan Pamuk and some politicians including members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP).
* Gladio weapons fields
The fields brought to mind a great number of NATO-made arms depots found buried underground during an investigation started by Italian prosecutor Felice Casson, who discovered the existence of Operation Gladio, a NATO stay-behind paramilitary force left over from the Cold War. In a panel he joined in Ä°stanbul last April, Casson said these weapons were found buried in cemeteries, under churches and even in caves. Ergenekon is also thought to be a remnant from the original Turkish Gladio, which was founded against a possible Soviet invasion during the Cold War, but later turned into an organization trying to cut off Turkey's ties with the West. The retired generals arrested in the Ergenekon investigation seem to have an anti-EU, anti-NATO stance favoring a closer relationship between Turkey and Russia and Eurasian nations.
Analysts said on Friday that the buried weapons might shed light on a number of murders committed in the Gölbaşı area prior to the Susurluk investigation of 1996, which started when a former police chief, a southeastern tribal leader whose men were armed by the state to fight separatist violence and an internationally wanted mafia boss were involved in an accident near the small township of Susurluk while riding in the same car. The police chief and the mafia boss as well as his girlfriend, a former model, were killed in the accident. No serious arrests followed from the ensuing investigation, which had exposed, for the first time in modern Turkish history, a gang with links to the state.
Some of the most significant unresolved murders were the assassination of Yusuf Ekinci, a lawyer of Kurdish origin, and the murder of retired Maj. Cem Ersever and his girlfriend. Investigators are examining possible links between the Gölbaşı weapons and unresolved murders in the area in the '90s.
* Ergenekon suspects on the run
Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Mustafa Dönmez, an Ergenekon suspect in whose houses in Sakarya and Ankara were found to contain dozens of bullets, hand grenades and weapons, is now reported to be a fugitive. On Wednesday Dönmez, who promised the police who called him on his cell phone to inform him that an arrest warrant had been issued for him that he would go to a police station "right away", disappeared shortly after the phone call. The police claim they arrived on Wednesday at the Adapazarı Central Command to capture Dönmez, but gendarmerie officers who said the area fell under gendarmerie jurisdiction said they would find Dönmez. Later, the gendarmerie told that police they had been unable to find Dönmez and that they believed he had escaped.
Twenty-two hand grenades, five revolvers and a Kalashnikovs as well as 8,300 bullets were found in a house belonging to the lieutenant colonel in Sakarya. The search in another house belonging to Dönmez in Ankara revealed three revolvers, 2 Kalashnikov rifles and a pair of night-vision binoculars.
Thirty-seven in total were detained in the last wave of Ergenekon detentions on Wednesday, including six army members who are currently on duty as well as seven retired generals. In addition to Dönmez, Bedrettin Dalan, a former mayor of the city of İstanbul, was also being searched by the police on Wednesday, but it soon turned out that he was in the US. However, some newspapers claimed on Friday was Dalan had evaded to the US after being tipped off on the Ergenekon operation.
* Political clashes over Ergenekon
On Thursday, one day after the high-profile detentions, the traffic in Ankara between institutions was intense. Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ visited both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül, with no statement on the content of the talks but stating that they were indeed about the recent detentions in which some retired generals and current officers were taken into custody. Newspapers wrote yesterday that Başbuğ was seeking special treatment for military members. According to sources which spoke to various newspapers, Başbuğ demanded that military members should be invited to the prosecutor's office instead of being taken into custody.
Sources also say that Başbuğ demanded that senior generals Hurşit Tolon and Şener Eruygur, arrested last year as part of the investigation, be released pending trial.
Basbug's visit on Thursday came after a 6-hour meeting of the Force Commanders on Wednesday evening, convened immediately after the detentions.
* Accusations disrespectful to judiciary, says Sahin
Also yesterday, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin responded to allegations from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) that the Ergenekon investigation had turned into a witch-hunt against the government's opponents. CHP leader Deniz Baykal claimed the operation was a revenge against the secular Republic and its supporters. Şahin said, "Showing our prosecutors and judges because of their judicial activities to be "settling accounts with the Republic," is the highest form of disrespect that can be shown the judicial institution." Şahin called on all segments to show the utmost effort not to cast doubt upon the judiciary.
