Ex-Anti-terror General Sent to Jail, Along With Companions

Retired Major General Veli Kücük, nationalist lawyer KemalKerincsiz, retired Colonel Fikri Karadag, and Turkish OrthodoxPatriarchy spokesperson Sevgi Erenerol, along with 9 other companions aresent to jail by  İstanbul court orderlate Sunday night, under charges for  “attemptat armed insrurrection.”

Küçük is the highest ever link brought to justice in the chain of ultra-nationalist terror campaign directed at Kurdish nationalists and human and minority rights activists, during the past decade.

Investigative journalists and human rights reporters and activists had during the turbulent years of intense fighting between the armed forces and the Kurdish guerrilla PKK pointed their fingers to gendarme intelligence officers for the extra-judicial executions and arsons and sabotages what caused the lives of hundreds of politicians, rights activists and journalists. Veli Küçük is known as the organizer of the JITEM (Gendarme Intellgence and Ani-Terror), the existence of which is officially denied. 

Also jailed are retired major Zekeriya Öztürk and, MuhammedYüce, Kahraman Şahin, Erol Ölmez andErkut Ersoy as mabers of the clandestine organization.  They were among 33 suspects who were taken from their homes on Tuesday (22 January) under charges of forming a clandestine group to plot againstthe government, and attempts at the lives of Kurdish politicians, as well asstoring weapons in a secret arsenal, discovered last year.

Lawyer Fuat Turgut, who is the defense lawyer of YasinHayal, a murder suspect in the Hrant Dink case, Aksamnewspaper journalist Güler Kömürcü, were among the 20 released aftertestifying at court.

"I feel extremely offended for having been charged with terrositactivities after acting as an attorney in cases filed against terrorists, “LawyerFuat Turgut told journalists after his release

According to reports leaking from the court and the police theinvestigation extends to scores of bombings, and killings including theHrant Dink murder as well as that of theattack on the State Council in Ankara in 2006, when one judgewas killed and four wounded. The hand granades thrown at the Cumhuriyet newspaper, last year were found to be of the same series with those discovered in the clandestine arsenal.

Nationalist connections and the "Deep State" 

Fourteen people had been arrested previously, including retired militarycaptain Muzaffer Tekin and writer Ergün Poyraz.Tekin has been alleged to have been involved in the planning of the attack onthe State Council.

Lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, known for causing the trials of writers like OrhanPamuk and Elif Shafak under Article 301 and forattempting to become a third-party plaintiff in the trial against Hrant Dink,was the defense lawyer for Tekin and Poyraz.

Veli Kücük’s name is linked to the notorious Susurluk scandalwhich rocked Turkey in 1996 and revealed connections between politicians, thepolice and organised crime. The scandal did much to confirm the publicskepticism that a "deep state" controlled the country. Kücük is alsorelated with threats against Hrant Dink. (EK)