Brief History Of The Ergenekon Case

After 17 months, the 13th High Criminal Court of Istanbul begins to try the 86 suspects, 46 of them already in prison, for the investigation that was launched when some hand grenades were found in a shack in the neighborhood of Umraniye in Istanbul June 13, 2007.

The 2455 page long indictment, which was written on July 10 and admitted by the court fifteen days later, charges the suspects with “membership in an armed organization”, “attempting to eliminate the government by force and violence or to prevent it from doing his job either partially or completely”, “provoking an armed rebellion against the government” and “carrying on an armed rebellion against the government.”

Nine operations and forty-six arrests in sixteen months

The case will be tried at the Silivri Penitentiary Campus, to where the arrested suspects were transferred. İlhan Selçuk, chief editor of the newspaper Cumhuriyet, and Kemal Yalçın Alemdaroğlu, former rector of Istanbul University, are among the suspects not arrested.

There will be both visual and audible recording during the trial. The two of the prosecutors who conducted the investigation, Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel and Nihat Taşkın, will join the trial as the court prosecutors.

Retired Brigadier Veli Küçük, leader of the Workers Party Doğu Perinçek, journalists Vedat Yenerer, Güler Kömürcü, mafia boss Sedat Peker and retired petty officer Oktay Yıldırım are among the 46 suspects.

The indictment includes Santoro, Dink, the Council of State and Cumhuriyet incidents

The indictment refers to many incidents like the murder of Priest Santoro on February 5, 2006, the bombing of the building of Cumhuriyet newspaper on May 5, 10 and 11, 2006, the attack on the Council of State on May 17, 2006 and the murder of Hrant Dink on January 19, 2007.

The indictment states that when all the incidents are taken together, it becomes clear that the goal was to create internal conflict, chaos and terror in the country so that the conditions will be just right for a military intervention.

Those on trial are Oktay Yıldırım, Mehmet Demirtaş, Ali Yiğit, Muzaffer Tekin, Mahmut Öztürk, Gazi Güder, Ayşe Asuman Özdemir, Halil Behiç Gürcihan, İsmail Yıldız, Kemal Şahin, Mehmet Murat Yücel, Ferudun Refik Nuhoğlu, Hayrullah Mahmud Özgür, Ergün Poyraz, Bekir Öztürk, Fuat Ermiş, Tuğrul Derme, Mete Yalazangil, Aydın Yüksek, Muzaffer Şenocak, Fikret Emek, Mehmet Zekeriya Öztürk, Rafet Arslan, Zeki Yurdakul Çağman, Tuncay Hacıbektaşoğlu, Saipir Debzlelvidze, İsmail Eksik, Veli Küçük, Sevgi Erenerol, Muammer Karabulut, Vedat Yenerer, Güler Kömürcü, Emin Caner Yiğit, Ümit Oğuztan, Sami Hoştan, Sedat Peker, Semih Tufan Gülaltay, Vatan Bölükbaşoğlu, Orhan Tunç, Habip Umit Sayın, Emin Gürses, Kemal Yalçın Alemdaroğlu, Serhan Bolluk, Doğu Perinçek, Ferid İlsever, Mehmet Adnan Akfırat, Hikmet Çiçek, Hayati Özcan, İbrahim Benli, Mahir Çayan Güngör, Yusuf Tunçer, Aydın Gergin, Yusuf Beşirik, İlhan Selçuk, Kemal Kerinçsiz, Fuat Turgut, Hayrettin Ertekin, Nusret Senem, Abdulmuttalip Tunçer, Murat Özkan, Satılmış Balkaş,Atilla Aksu, Mehmet Fikri Karadağ, Hüseyin Görüm, Erkut Ersoy, Kahraman Şahin, Erol Ölmez, Abdullah Arapoğulları, Erdal İrten, Raif Görüm, Yusuf Görüm, Oğuz Alparslan Abdülkadir, Recep Gökhan Sipahioğlu, Muammet Yüce, Selim Akkurt, Coşkun Çalık, Ayhan Çelik, Hüseyin Gazi Oğuz, Tanju Okan, Yaşar Arslanköylü, İhsan Göktaş, Rasim Görüm, Ali Kutlu and Murat Çağlar.(EÖ/TB)