European Forum

Trial begins for 56 suspects in Turkish Ergenekon case

On Monday 20 July the second phase of the country’s controversial Ergenekon case started. The trial against Ergenekon, a shadowy crime network that has alleged links within the state and is suspected of plotting to topple the government, resumes today, with the appearance of 56 suspects whose names appear in the second indictment. The suspects will be interrogated about their links with four failed coup attempts, namely, Ayışığı (Moonlight), Sarıkız (Blonde girl), Yakamoz (Sea sparkle), Eldiven (Glove). The prosecution wants life sentences against retired generals Şener Eruygur and Hurşit Tolon, who are accused of being senior leaders of an alleged ultra-nationalist gang named Ergenekon. The generals are on trial along with 54 other suspects, charged in the same indictment, the second to emerge from the long-running probe into Ergenekon.

The suspects also include two senior journalists known as vocal government critics -- Mustafa Balbay, whose alleged diary mentions purported coup plots, and Tuncay Özkan. Other prominent defendants are Sinan Aygün, head of the Ankara Trade Chamber, and the wife of a senior judge from the Constitutional Court. Some 200 protestors demonstrated outside the courthouse at the heavily guarded Silivri prison outside Istanbul to brand the charges as a fabrication as the suspects appeared in the dock. Eruygur, reported to be in poor health, was not present at Monday’s hearing, which dealt largely with procedural formalities.

Ergenekon prosecutors submitted a third indictment for 52 other defendants, including prominent academics and active army officers, to the court later on Monday, bringing the total number of the charged to 194 in the controversial probe. The 1,454-page long new indictment, which needs the court's approval, includes charges of attempts to topple the government and disrupt Parliament, membership in an armed terrorist group, possession of weapons, and stealing state secrets, the prosecutors said. Eighty-six other suspects, charged of forming an illegal organization to provoke a series of events that would pave the way for a military coup, have been on trial since October. Although initially hailed as a success, the Ergenekon case has rekindled tensions between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), supporters and its secularist opponents. Some say the investigation will shed light on anti-democratic forces at work in the country, while others accuse the AKP of using the probe to target opponents and discredit the military.

The controversial Ergenekon case, which has fanned political tensions and sharply divided society, started after the discovery of 27 hand grenades in 2007, in a house in Istanbul's Ümraniye district that belonged to a retired noncommissioned officer. The grenades were found to be the same ones used in the attacks on Cumhuriyet daily’s Istanbul offices in 2006. The suspects are also implicated in the Council of State attack in 2006. The findings led to scores of detentions, putting almost 200 journalists, writers, politicians, army officers, academics and gang leaders under interrogation.

Sources: hurriyetdailynews and todayszaman