Eleven Taken Into Custody For Ergenekon Investigation

Eleven people have been taken into custody in operations conducted in connection with the Ergenekon investigation today. Some of those taken into custody are actress Nurseli İdiz, former president of Ülkü Ocakları (Hearths of the Ideal, an organization associated with the Grey Wolves) and lawyer Levent Temiz and Seyhan Soylu.

Police went to Temiz’s house early in the morning and searched it with a lawyer present. He was taken into custody after the search.

Likewise, the houses of  actress Idiz and organizer Soylu were searched as well. İdiz had played Atatürk in Soylu’s “Republican Women Project”.

In Ankara, eight people were apprehended in connection with the investigation. The suspects will be sent to Istanbul after their medical exam. Six computers, one laptop, CD’s and documents were seized with these people.

Temiz had stormed an exhibition and threatened Hrant Dink

Together with a group including Ramazan Kırkık of the Union of Non-Governmental Organizations of Turkey, former president of Ülkü Ocakları (Hearths of the Ideal) Temiz had stormed an exhibition titled “September 6-7 Incidents” and organized by ‘Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları’ (Anti Art Works) together with the History Foundation of Turkey in Galatasaray, Istanbul.

The attackers had tried to destroy the pictures in the exhibition by throwing eggs at them. Not satisfied with the damage, they had also thrown some of the pictures from the balcony to the street, to be stepped on by their friends waiting there.

Temiz had also threatened Hrant Dink, murdered founder and chief editor of Agos, weekly Armenian Turkish newspaper, after Dink had written an article claiming that Atatürk’s adopted daughter and the first woman pilot of Turkey Sabiha Gökçen was really an Armenian, a survivor of 1915.

The discussions that had started after the article had quickly turned into provocations and a group of Hearths of the Ideal members had marched from the Şişli Branch office of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to the Agos building at Pangaltı, just a hundred meters away, while chanting slogans such as “Either love it or leave it”, “Down with Asala”.

Speaking on behalf of the group in front of the Agos building, Temiz had threatened Hrant Dink and told the crowd that he was the target of their hate.

However, the authorities had decided to prosecute Temiz not for “dangerous provocation leading to hatred and hostility”, but for “opposing the Law for Meetings and Demonstrations. (BÇ/EÜ)