Ergenekon (organization)
Ergenekon (Turkish: [ˌæɾɟeneˈkon]) was the name given to an alleged clandestine, secular ultra-nationalist[1][better source needed] organization in Turkey with possible ties to members of the country's military and security forces.
[2][better source needed] The would-be group, named after Ergenekon, a mythical place located in the inaccessible valleys of the Altay Mountains, was accused of terrorism in Turkey.
[5] Alleged members had been indicted on charges of plotting to foment unrest, among other things by assassinating intellectuals, politicians, judges, military staff, and religious leaders, with the ultimate goal of toppling the incumbent government.
[8][9] By April 2011, over 500 people had been taken into custody and nearly 300 formally charged with membership in what prosecutors described as "the Ergenekon terrorist organization", which they claimed had been responsible for virtually every act of political violence—and controlled every militant group—in Turkey over the last 30 years.
[13][14] Mütercimler said he heard of the original organization's existence from retired general Memduh Ünlütürk, who was involved in the anti-communist Ziverbey interrogations following the 1971 coup.
[22] There is evidence to suggest that some – but only some – of the defendants named in the indictments have been engaged in illegal activity and that others – again far from all – hold eccentric or distasteful political opinions and worldviews.
[24] Based on documents prepared by one of the prosecutors, an article in Sabah says that the alleged organization consists of six cells with the following personnel:[25][26] Of those, the structure of only the "Theory" department had been revealed as of September 2008.
One month later, a columnist on good terms with the government, Fehmi Koru, was the first to break the news,[33] under his usual pen name, Taha Kıvanç.
[52] Güney is seen as such an important figure that rival press groups have exchanged columns accusing one another of attempting to influence public opinion by questioning his credibility.
[citation needed] The investigation drew alleged links between an armed attack on the Turkish Council of State in 2006 that left a judge dead,[64] a bombing of a secularist newspaper,[64] threats and attacks against people accused of being unpatriotic and the 1996 Susurluk incident, as well as links to the plans of some groups in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to overthrow the present government.
[68] The Gülen movement-affiliated Zaman newspaper quoted a senior intelligence officer, Bülent Orakoğlu, as having said that the PKK, Dev Sol, Hezbollah, and Hizb ut-Tahrir are artificial organizations set up by the network, and that Abdullah Öcalan himself was an Ergenekon member.
[76] This initial wave of optimism has since waned, and there is a growing mass of intellectuals and policy analysts who dismiss the possibility of Ergenekon carrying out the deeds attributed to it by the public prosecution as laid out in the indictment and trial proceedings.
[77] Many people have criticized the manner in which the Ergenekon investigation is being conducted, citing in particular the length of the indictment,[78] wiretapping in breach of privacy laws,[79][80] and illegal collection of evidence.
[83] Gülen movement's possible involvement in Ergenekon plot has always been an issue of debate,[84] which critics have characterized as "a pretext" by the government "to neutralize dissidents" in Turkey.
[85] In March 2011, seven Turkish journalists were arrested, including Ahmet Şık, who had been writing a book, "Imamin Ordusu" (The Imam's Army),[86] which alleges that the Gülen movement has infiltrated the country's security forces.
[88] In a reply, Abdullah Bozkurt, from the Gülen movement newspaper Today's Zaman, accused Ahmet Şık of not being "an investigative journalist" conducting "independent research," but of hatching "a plot designed and put into action by the terrorist network itself.
On 28 September 2010, two days before he was due to give a press conference to present documentary evidence to support his allegations, Avcı was arrested and charged with membership of an extremist leftist organization.
[84]The Gülen movement has also been implicated in what both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) have said were illegal court decisions against members of the Turkish military, including many during the Ergenekon investigation.
