THE TURKISH LOBBY, THE NEOCONS, AND THE CRUSADE TO FREE THE ERGENEKON TERRORISTS

"The enlargement of the Ergenekon investigation will improve the standards of our democracy. Not only the Ergenekon on the western side of the Euphrates River, but also the one on the eastern side should be investigated, and a real 'clean hands' operation should be started."
~ Ahmet Türk.

A very interesting video was brought to my attention by a reader in the comments section here.

Let's take a look:

Wayne Madsen makes some interesting speculations about Katil Erdoğan's visit to Washington last week, which ended up with the resignation of Turkey's ambassador to the US, Nabi Şensoy.

Madsen speculates that Obama spoke to Katil Erdoğan about the Ergenekon prosecutions with the intent of dropping them and freeing the Ergenekon terrorists. He points out that the paşas would like to see an end to the prosecutions. We know that the Ergenekon terrorists were actually sponsored by the US as part of the CIA's Gladio stay-behind program and that the charges they face today are minor in comparison to the terror they carried out against the Kurdish people in The Southeast--for which they are not being prosecuted.

Madsen mentions that Turkish lobby organizations in the US, like the American Turkish Council (ATC), have been trying to influence the US government into pressuring the AKP to drop the Ergenekon issue. Although I have not seen evidence of the ATC's overt involvement in this particular aspect of influence peddling, there is a Turkish organization that has been working on exactly this matter and it has a relationship with the ATC. That organization is the ARI Foundation.

As was brought up in comments in a post on Sibel Edmonds' website, the ARI Foundation hosted a seminar last month for the US Congress in which the members of the foundation urged Congress to "intervene urgently to stop the trial . . . " From VoltaireNet:

. . . [O]n 18 November 2009 a seminar was held at the U.S. Congress to deny the existence of Ergenekon, putting it down as a myth invented by the Erdogan Government to discredit Army Chief of Staff, General Mehmet Yaşar Büyükanıt, and the U.S.-friendly officers in his entourage, in the hope of imposing an Islamic state.

The participants stressed that the United States should intervene urgently to stop the trial, but should not do so openly since it would feed into the "conspiracy theories" purporting that NATO has set up a "Deep State" in Turkey which has manipulated or attempted to manipulate public institutions for decades.

The seminar was organised by the ARI Foundation, a low-profile think-tank bent on promoting relations between Washington and Ankara. Actually, ARI is a front for the Atlanticist-Israeli lobby. In accordance with Robert Strausz-Hupé’s policies, ARI is promoting a Tel-Aviv-Ankara axis under NATO auspices for the control of the Middle East.

The piece mentions the ARI Foundation's connections to the Israeli lobby, especially the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). WINEP was founded by former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, who started his "public service" career as a research director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC. Indyk also served as a founding director for WINEP.

Yurter Özcan, the president of the ARI Foundation, works with Turk neocon Soner Çağaptay, who is the director of WINEP's Turkish "Research" Program.

The first of ARI Foundation's symposia was presented in 2002 and featured Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum. Other contributors to their symposia include AIPAC spy Steve Rosen, who now works with Daniel Pipes' Middle East Forum.

Former Florida congressman Robert Wexler has also been involved with the ARI Foundation. Wexler is a co-founder of the Caucus on US-Turkish Relations who recently resigned his congressional seat to take a temporary job with a minor pro-Israeli think tank while he waits out the one-year ban that former congressmen must wait before taking up lucrative lobbying jobs. My money says that, as soon as Wexler passes the one-year mark, he'll slide right into a nice, cushy, lobbying job for the Turkish government.

Also involved with the ARI Foundation is Zeyno Baran, an Ergenekon defender at the very neoconservative Hudson Institute.

For tax purposes, the ARI Foundation lists Gunay Evinch (Günay Övunç) as it's contact person. Övunç is, of course, the current president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA). The ARI Foundation has conducted anti-Armenian Genocide propaganda in conjunction with the ATAA, and you had better believe that if an organization or person is anti-Armenian Genocide, they're anti-Kurd as well.

Furthermore, those who've been moaning the most about the suffering paşas, current and retired, are the Israelis and neoconservatives. Here's a sample from a recent column in the Jerusalem Post:

TURKEY'S BREAK with the West; its decisive rupture with Israel and its opposition to the US in Iraq and Iran was predictable. Militant Islam of the AKP variety has been enjoying growing popularity and support throughout Turkey for many years. The endemic corruption of Turkey's traditional secular leaders increased the Islamists' popularity. Given this domestic Turkish reality, it is possible that Erdogan and his fellow Islamists' rise to power was simply a matter of time.

But even if the AKP's rise to power was eminently predictable, its ability to consolidate its control over just about every organ of governance in Turkey as well as what was once a thriving free press [Haha, good one! -- Mizgîn], and change completely Turkey's strategic posture in just seven years was far from inevitable. For these accomplishments the AKP owes a debt of gratitude to both the Bush and Obama administrations, as well as to the EU.

The Bush administration ignored the warnings of secular Turkish leaders in the country's media, military and diplomatic corps that Erdogan was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Rather than pay attention to his past attempts to undermine Turkey's secular, pro-Western character and treat him with a modicum of suspicion, after the AKP electoral victory in 2002 the Bush administration upheld the AKP and Erdogan as paragons of Islamist moderation and proof positive that the US and the West have no problem with political Islam.

[ . . . ]

In Turkey itself, the administration's enthusiastic embrace of the AKP meant that Erdogan encountered no Western opposition to his moves to end press freedom in Turkey; purge the Turkish military of its secular leaders and end its constitutional mandate to preserve Turkey's secular character [Turkey is not secular; read the constitution -- Mizgîn]; intimidate and disenfranchise secular business leaders and diplomats; and stack the Turkish courts with Islamists. That is, in the name of its support for its water-downed definition of democracy, the US facilitated Erdogan's subversion of all the Turkish institutions that enabled liberal norms to be maintained and kept Turkey in the Western alliance.

So, yeah, we all know that Turkey was an absolute paradise while under absolute paşa rule, but if the JPost writer wants to blame the Bush administration, she'd damn well better blame her neoconservative colleagues. Here's a blast from the past (circa 2004) from the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, published by Daniel Pipes' Middle East Forum:

While Erdogan and other AKP leaders unabashedly affirm their private religious convictions, they advocate secularism in the conventional Western sense of the term. "Before anything else, I'm a Muslim . . . I have a responsibility to God, who created me, and I try to fulfill that responsibility, but I try now very much to keep this away from my political life, to keep it private," Erdogan told the New York Times last year. "A political party cannot have a religion, only individuals can . . . religion is so supreme that it cannot be [politically] exploited or taken advantage of," he explained.[5]

[ . . .]

Ironically, the old line Kemalists, who for 80 years preached about the need to modernize and Westernize Turkey, have in many ways become the reactionaries in Turkey, while the "Islamists" have taken the lead in promoting Western-style reforms. In spite of the dismal electoral fortunes of nationalist political parties in 2002, the Kemalist elite continues to dominate not only Turkey's military, but also its civilian bureaucracy, judiciary, and media. The so-called "deep state" in Turkey has resisted many of the changes introduced by the AKP.

[ . . . ]

Turkey, a country of about 70 million Muslims, most of whom are religious, is ruled today by a conservative party with an Islamic pedigree and a humane, tolerant, and democratic track record. Can we generalize from the AKP's experience? Not without some care. Turkey is quite different from the rest of the Middle East, whether Arab or Persian. What works in Ankara will not necessarily work in Tehran, Damascus or Baghdad. Nonetheless, there are definitely lessons to be learned.

Read the whole thing because it contains an accurate description of how the Bush administration pushed aside long-time American allies in Turkey . . . you know, the paşas, in favor of Islamists. Then think about how the US has always chosen Islamist regimes over secular ones. Do the terms "Afghan mujahedin" or "Taliban" ring any bells? In 2004, it would appear that everything was sweetness and light, with the pro-Israeli neoconservatives praising AKP and Katil Erdoğan to the heavens. What a difference a few years makes among fascists! But for the pro-paşa, pro-Israeli neoconservative opinion on Ergenekon, check the AEI's Michael Rubin or the Middle East Forum or the columnist section of the Jerusalem Post, and all those who cooked up the Clean Break.

In any event, we can see that Madsen is totally correct when he emphasizes the links between the Turkish and Israeli lobbies, and it's extremely unfortunate that more people in media aren't talking about the fact.

Did Obama actually talk to Katil Erdoğan about releasing the Ergenekon terrorists? I doubt it. Obama and Erdoğan certainly had more pressing matters to talk about, like coordinating NATO's heroin industry in Afghanistan in order to keep Goldman Sachs alfoat. The US has backed the AKP and Fethullahçı from AKP's initial rise to power and Gülen's movement provides some inside access to The Grand Chessboard of Central Asia. Certainly Gülen was deeply involved with the Ergenekon terrorists but it no longer serves his purposes to have anything to do with them nor does he have any need to try to save them from prosecution. Besides, Gülen is a valuable asset to the US right these days.

Gülen's disciples have followed his command to "work patiently and to creep silently into the institutions in order to seize power in the state". The paşas no longer force out Islamists from the TSK's officer corps. Fethullahçı moles inside the Turkish general staff leaked the information about the coup attempts metnioned by Madsen. Gülen's star slowly rises while that of the paşas slowly sets, and who is hosting Gülen? Who is protecting him? Who was it that approved Katil Erdoğan as the leader of Turkey while Erdoğan was banned from holding political office?

Let the CIA worry when Tansu Çiller is arrested.

TWO YEARS LATER: NO JUSTICE FOR HRANT DINK

"The Ergenekon gang is a deep organization and as long as the true leaders remain free, the real instigators of Dink’s murder will never be captured."
~ Fethiye Çetin, Hrant Dink's lawyer.

When you talk about history in the US many people will say, if they're old enough, "I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot," or "I remember where I was when the World Trade Center was attacked". Not only do people remember these kinds of things and where they were when they heard the news, they also remember what they were doing and how they felt.

I remember where I was and what I was doing two years ago today. I remember how I felt. I remember opening a page of news and seeing the photo of Hrant Dink covered with paper, yellow crime scene tape holding back onlookers, and the police standing nearby. I remember how I felt. I was shocked, horrified, dismayed, disgusted. I wanted what I was seeing not to be true. But I knew it was true and I didn't have to read the article to know what had happened, who was behind it, and how it would eventually go down.

When I think about all this now, I still have the same feelings I had two years ago today. I remember the photos of Rakel Dink and her family releasing snow-white doves into the air after the funeral of her husband, and I think Hrant Dink was like one of those doves. Peaceful. Good. Innocent.

Ax!

Turkey recently gave citizenship back to Nazim Hikmet, the communist and Turkey's greatest modern poet who had been disowned by the regime for decades. Ahmet Kaya became the victim of a hate campaign after announcing he would record a song and its video in Kurdish. He made the announcement at an awards dinner, at which he received an award. He was booed and forks and spoons were thrown at his table after making the announcement. Hürriyet published a photo of Kaya in front of a map of Kurdistan and labeled him "honorless". An investigation was started and then put on hold while the authorities waited for Hürriyet to provide them with the original photo of Kaya in front of the Kurdistan map. There was no photo. The photo had been photoshopped by Hürriyet itself. The investigation was dropped.

A Turkish TV documentary on Ahmet Kaya recently commented that he only wanted to sing in Kurdish. Why is that "honorless", especially now that the regime has its own Kurdish-language channel . . . for election purposes? Is the regime attempting to give Kaya's "honor" back?

Can the regime give Hrant Dink's life back?

No, it cannot, but when will we see justice in Dink's case? There have been well over 100 arrests in the Ergenekon case yet in two years' time we still have no convictions for those who were behind Dink's murder. The Istanbul police, the Trabzon police and jandarma, the Samsun police and jandarma, the BBP and other nationalists--everyone who knew beforehand of the plot to murder Hrant Dink--are free, with no concerns, no worries, no threat of justice hanging over their heads.

The three-ring circus which is Ergenekon has not touched the Deep State. The Deep State continues to enjoy its tradition of impunity. Nothing has been learned at all.

Gordon Taylor at The Pasha and the Gypsy has more two years on, here and here.

A MATTER OF TIMING

"Since the Ergenekon case represents the advanced level of classical Turkish chaos, this is not a good time to start learning about Turkey unless you are experienced in this ‘lonely and beloved country’."
~ Ece Temelkuran.

Some weird shit--more weird than usual for Turkey--is going down with these recent detentions in the Ergenekon fiasco. They're going deeper into the Susurluk Affair, to include the "soft coup" of 1997:

In fact, the apprehension of former Special Police Operations Deputy Chief İbrahim Şahin, who served six years in jail for links to Susurluk, in the latest wave of detentions signaled that the Susurluk case will also be included in the Ergenekon investigation.

[ . . . ]

Meanwhile, the fact that 10 active officers -- five colonels, two majors and three captains -- were detained over their alleged links to the Ergenekon terrorist organization in this latest wave has served to strengthen the previous indictment, which established links between the group and some active officers within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).

The indictment in question, which an İstanbul court accepted prior to opening the ongoing trial, read: "It has been understood both from the attached documents as well as from tapped telephone conversations that the Ergenekon terrorist organization has been engaged in secret organizational work within the TSK and that there have been members of this organization who come from the TSK, from the lowest to the highest ranking (officers)."

ARABASLIK Generals linked to Feb. 28 postmodern coup

The detention of three former generals and a number of civilians, including former Higher Education Board (YÖK) President Kemal Güriz, in the 10th wave of operations on Wednesday brought to the agenda their links with the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup.

Several papers established the links of those detained on Wednesday with the Feb. 28 coup that resulted in the overthrow of an Islamic-oriented coalition government under then Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan.

This was the fourth military coup staged in Turkey since the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. The fifth, and last, military intervention in Turkish politics came in 2007 in the form of an e-memo posted on the TSK's Web site.

What made the Feb. 28 intervention a postmodern one was the mobilization of an army of civilian allies who voluntarily defended the military over "fundamentalism" by evoking the reactions of the press and many nongovernmental organizations as well as YÖK and the judiciary.

The TSK carried out the aforementioned coups based on Article 35 of the Internal Service Law. The problem with Article 35 is that the authority designated to appoint the duty of protection and supervision is the TSK and not a civilian political authority.

There's more on the characters involved in this latest round of detentions at Zaman with information gleaned from Taraf. Check also another article at Zaman, in which it looks like AKP is going to go after the Kemalists under Article 288 of the Turkish penal code (TCK), which reads:

A person who explicitly makes a verbal or written declaration for the purpose of influencing the public prosecutor, judge, the court, expert witness or witnesses until the final judgment is given about an investigation or prosecution will be imprisoned for a term from six months to three years.

If this offence is committed through press or media, the penalty to be imposed shall be increased by one half.

The article has a small discussion of Büyükanıt's influence in the media over the Şemdinli bombing as an example. There's also a discussion of what legal experts are saying about Ergenekon at Hürriyet. Of note, also, is the meeting that the paşas held among themselves late Wednesday and Turkish chief of general staff Başbuğ met with Erdoğan for an hour and a half before his weekly meeting with Gül. Details, such as they are, from Reuters and the Guardian.

Reuters remarks:

Critics of the ruling AK Party say Erdogan's government is using the case as revenge for court moves by the secular establishment last year to outlaw the party for anti-secular activities. The AK Party denies any link.

And the Guardian quotes Gareth Jenkins:

Some analysts believe that yesterday's response shows its patience may be wearing thin. Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based expert on Turkish security affairs, said: "The army will have issued a stern warning to the government to back off and that this has to be the last of such arrests. Most of those arrested on Wednesday were not involved in the Ergenekon plot.

"It was just a political move, and has destroyed any hope that the probe will find the real culprits. The question is what happens next. What we are going to see is a power struggle between two fundamentally undemocratic forces using their influence in the judicial system."

Another interesting thing about these recent detentions is the timing, which takes place as the Turkish media has stirred up a frenzy over the crisis in Gaza. Olmert visited Erdoğan and Gül on December 21. My money says Olmert told them about Israel's upcoming operations in Gaza. Here's a hint:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is visiting Turkey in order to discuss the latter's mediation in the indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, but Monday's meeting with President Abdullah Gul also focused on the ongoing fire from Gaza.

"Israel cannot refrain from responding to the criminal fire on its citizens," Omert told Gul during their meeting in Ankara.

More:

Olmert met President Abdullah Gul before holding talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over dinner.

"What you don't do today in the Middle East – you may not be able to do tomorrow," Olmert said to Erdogan regarding the progression of the negotiations, adding that efforts must be focused on promoting direct talks with Syria.

The two leaders met in private for nearly an hour, and were then joined by their respective entourages for further discussion. After dinner the two resumed their tête-à-tête.

Earlier in the day Olmert met with Turkish President Abdullah Gul. "Israel cannot refrain from responding to the criminal fire on its citizens," Omert told Gul.

There's no reason to believe that the Israelis did not inform their only military ally in the region of their plans for Gaza, so Erdoğan knew. And the AKP decided to use this timing to make another Ergenekon sweep. What AKP's exact intentions are with these recent detentions and where they'll go from here, I haven't figured out yet. Is the US involved, as another Zaman article suggests? It's possible. Are Turkey, Israel, and the US working together? It wouldn't be the first time. Will the paşas allow it to continue? We'll definitely know when the troops leave the barracks.

I have to echo Jenkins: "The question is what happens next"?

One thing is for certain: The Ergenekon investigation has not gone east of the Fırat (Euphrates), so this certainly isn't about cleaning out and dismantling the Deep State.

One last item . . . the editor of Taraf, Adnan Demir, faces five years' imprisonmnent for Taraf's reporting of the Bezele (Aktütün) operation and TSK's major FAIL at the time. From Reporters Without Borders:

Reporters Without Borders today voiced support for Adnan Demir, editor of the liberal daily Taraf, who is facing trial for publishing confidential military information.

The worldwide press freedom organisation said it hoped the Turkish justice system would prove itself capable of resolving a case which involved a journalist who had done his job with professionalism.

"Adnan Demir has revealed information that is telling about the actions of the Turkish Army and raises several questions about possible mismanagement. The people have the right to be informed about the circumstances in which its citizens risk their lives."

[ . . . ]

The prosecutor at the Istanbul higher court yesterday called for a sentence of three to five years against Demir.

Isn't democracy wonderful?!

JITEM'S ACID WELLS IN CIZRE

"If the Ergenekon investigation doesn't pass east of the Euphrates, the Kurdish problem will never be solved."
~ Ahmet Türk.

A month ago Nuh Gönultaş at Bugün wrote about some interesting information from supreme Ergenekon weirdo, Tuncay Güney, in a piece titled, "Where are JITEM's acid death wells?":

The black box, Tuncay Güney's life story and his relations, is not known whether or not it is real. He, who first disclosed Ergenekon and has become a legend.

Güney's most important trait is his close nine-year relationship with Veli Küçük, who was the deep paşa of the 1990s.

The book written by journalist Faruk Arslan, who lives in Toronto, titled Black Box: Ergenekon's Unknown Name Tuncay Güney, in which the mysterious witness makes shocking statements.

Güney claims that thousands of Kurdish citizens, who were killed by JITEM as extrajudicial murders for harboring PKK, were thrown into acid-filled wells, in which their corpses dissolved. Thus their bodies were never found.

This is quite an original and new information.

Güney advises looking at the BOTAŞ complex which JITEM had used in the Southeast in the 1990s, to find acid-filled death wells.

For years no one knew where the graves were of more than 18,000 citizens, most of whom were Kurdish and were killed by "unknown perpetrators"; no one questions or dares to question.

Güney claims that although there are very few people who know where these acid-filled wells are located in the Southeast, and Veli Küçük is one of them, but Küçük does not tell.

However, Güney gives a specific address in the book: "The places where JITEM and Kucuk's group used were these places. For a clear address, when you go towards the Habur border, close by Mardin's old town Cizre, on the left there is a complex that is guarded by soldiers. If you dig there, there will be a lot of bodies. BOTAŞ has enterprises in Diyarbakır, Batman, Adıyaman and these places should also be checked."

As a response to the question where did they find the acid, Güney replied in a classic way: "There are several factories in İzmit. Even Küçük's greeting is an order for them. Besides, for drug-trafficking they needed acid. They had become experts in bringing acid."

For more on that, see 32. Gün from November 2008, in which Güney reiterates the claim about the acid-filled wells. Note that I've provided the link for the first in a series of fourteen videos of that particular edition of 32. Gün.

Now it looks like the Şırnak state prosecutor is going to investigate the claims of the acid-filled wells.

The complaint was initially made by the head of the Şırnak Bar Association, based on the book by Faruk Arslan, mentioned in the Nuh Gönultaş piece . Before the state prosecutor's decision to go ahead with the investigation of the acid-filled wells, the Şırnak Bar Association vowed to move to open the wells at the first opportunity as soon as their exact locations were identified. The bar association will now be able to do just that. From Zaman:

Şırnak Bar Association chief Nuşirevan Elçi says: "This situation gave us hope. Turkey must face its past in order to have a bright future. If there are illegal implementations, these must come before the judiciary. The relatives of those murdered by unknown perpetrators don't know whether or not they are dead these last 15-20 years. This situation puts those people in pain. If this event is disclosed, these people will cease hoping. For Turkey's bright future, these kinds of works must be done. Especially within this context I see the Ergenekon investigation as a new era."

In the past, DTP has said that unless Ergenekon was investigated east of the Euphrates, their would be little hope for a solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey. Now let's wait and see how much of this is truly investigated and the results revealed. Then we'll find out, too, if Ergenekon's mysterious "black box" has any credibility.

GÜLEN, KÜÇÜK, AND THE EDUCATION OF SOUTH KURDISTAN

"Gulen gave a new decree and a new kind of mobilization to assimilate Kurds and to steal their minds by injecting religious ideology and by causing them to sell their birthright."
~ Aland Mizell.

At the beginning of the month, I posted some news about the Ergenekon gang that had been published in Taraf. At the time, I mentioned that the nexus of the Ergenekon indictment could be found in a weirdo named Tuncay Güney:

It would appear, however, that the lies surrounding the issue of "The Antidote" stem from Tuncay Güney, a one-time, small-time journalist in whose possession the original Ergenekon documents were found in 2001. Güney has been linked to Fethullah Gülen and Gülen's Samanyolu TV. Güney claims to have brought the photos of Öcalan and Perinçek to MİT. He claims to have taken a bribe of $15,000 to PKK in order not to shut down Gülen's schools in Hewler, although how PKK would have had any control over anything in Hewler is a huge question. Perhaps the KDP took the bribe by introducing themselves as PKK members? Güney also claıms to have delivered money from Fethullah Gülen to ultra-fascist Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu so that he could establish the BBP.

Zaman has some additional weird tidbits about Güney:


"Meanwhile, in an interview with the Yeni Şafak daily, Tuncay Güney, a former journalist whose ties with various secret services, both domestic and international, have been documented, stated that Kurdish separatist terrorism would come to an end if the Ergenekon gang wanted that to happen. Güney, who now lives in Canada and works as a rabbi, has suspected ties to the group. Güney came to prominence when the first documents related to the Ergenekon gang were seized on his computer in a 2001 police raid.

"Güney, currently a rabbi at the Jacobs House Jewish Community Center in Toronto, praised Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Öz for having “done a great job” so far in the investigation, although he expressed doubts that the operation would be very successful in the end. “However, they are very close to the end and I think it is very difficult moving on further from this point. There is no power in Turkey that can stop Ergenekon,” he said, expressing doubts that the investigation will bring about the collapse of the crime group."


A check of YouTube reveals that Güney does, in fact, appear to be a member of an Orthodox Jewish community in Toronto, although he now denies any connection with Fethullah Gülen, as his appearance on Mehmet Ali Birand's 32. Gün indicates. If the first Ergenekon documents were found in Güney's possession, why has he not been indicted? Did he cut a deal and, if so, what kind of deal was it? Is his life now, in an Orthodox Jewish community in Toronto some kind of strange "witness protection" program?

Now, there's more from Güney on the connectıon between the Ergenekon gang, Fethullah Gülen, and Gülen's schools in South Kurdistan, from Milliyet:

Küçük knows Gülen for a long time


Güney, in his statement in 2001, claims that he and Mehmet Demircan, an important name in Fethullah Gülen's movement, spent intense efforts to gain Küçük into the movement and that the two [Gülen and Küçük] knew each other for a long time.

Tuncay Güney's statement in 2001, which he gave to Istanbul police, is one of the most fundamental pieces of evidence that Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, is working on. In this statement, Tuncay Güney gave a detailed explanation of Fethullah Gülen's movement. In the Ergenekon indictment's 442nd file, there are interesting claims that Güney made. Here, Güney claims that, since the 1970s, Fethullah Gülen knew retired Brigadier General Veli Küçük, who is under arrest in the Ergenekon case, from the right-wing National Struggle Movement (MMH). Güney explained that he learned that Küçük and Fethullah Gülen knew each other for a long time, while he and one of Gülen's prominent members, Mehmet Demircan, made efforts to gain Küçük to the movement.

"All of them are strugglers for nationalism"

When Tuncay Güney was detained in 2001 for by Istanbul police for fraud, he was working for Samanyolu TV, which is linked to the Fethullah Gülen movement. In the statement he gave to police while under interrogation, he pointed out that taking advantage of his position, he had the possibility to meet with important names in Fethullah Gülen's movement.

Within this framework, Güney mentions that he and Demircan tried to gain, the then active duty Veli Küçük, for the movement. "When we gain him, we will be more powerful in the eyes of Fethullah Gülen," Güney says.

Again, referring to Demircan, Tuncay Güney ascribed the information that Gülen knew Veli Küçük from the National Strugglers' Movement. "Look at all of Fethullah Gülen's members; they are all National Strugglers," he said.

Support for Gülen's schools

In his statement, Güney said that Veli Küçük helped Fethullah Gülen to open a school in Northern Iraq [South Kurdistan]. According to Güney's statement, they had stopped in Diyarbakır, where they were on the way to Erbil, in order to open private Irbil Light College. There (in Diyarbakır), they called Veli Küçük to let him know they were there, thus Jandarma Regional Commander Eşref Hatipoğlu met them. Hatipoğlu sent Güney and Gülen's members to Silopi in a military helicopter. From there, the group passed to Nehciban (there he means Neçirvan) and talked to Barzani and Talabani.

"Veli Küçük's teacher collared Erdoğan"

Güney also made a statement about field officer Necabettin Ergenekon's involvement with Gülen's movement. According to Güney, Necabettin Ergenekon was Küçük's teacher. According to Güney's claims, Necabettin Ergenekon had talks with R. Tayyip Erdoğan, then the Refah Partisi (RP) Istanbul chairman. In one of these talks, Ergenekon caught Erdoğan by the collar and shook him. According to Guney's statement, Erdoğan, in RP's Tepebaşı office, was having a discussion with Necabettin Ergenekon about pan-Islamism. Then Ergenekon became nervous and grabbed Erdoğan by the collar saying, "This is bullshit, Tayyip; there won't be pan-Islamism if there isn't Turkism."

Güney said that the person who introduced him to Veli Küçük, was Veli Küçük's teacher, Ergenekon. "The field officer in Izmit (Veli Küçük), is my student. I'll take you and introduce you to him" said Ergenekon according to Güney.

It was claimed that Küçük had named the Ergenekon organization after his teacher's last name.

He spied for Eymür about Gülen

In his statement, Güney said that when he was in Fethullah Gülen's movement, he was regularly informing MİT chairman Mehmet Eymür's staff. Güney said, "When I was working there, Mehmet Eymür's men would come and get information periodically . . . Besides this information, they were asking about the hot issues in the movement anyway."

In February, as war preparations against South Kurdistan were underway, Nêçîrvan Barzanî and the KRG gave the go-ahead for the foundation of a new Gülen university in Hewlêr.

There was no mention of anyone having given PKK a $15,000 bribe in connection with this Gülen enterprise, but that may be because any bribes would actually be given to the cehş of the KRG who are only too happy to contribute to the destruction of the Kurdish people for a price.

THE HUDSON INSTITUTE, ERGENEKON, AND THE ISLAMIST COUP IN TURKEY

"Our boys did it!"
~ Paul Henze, former CIA station chief, Ankara, referring to the 12 September coup.

Info-Turk posted a very interesting article about Ergenekon roots in DC. The original article is in French, but with a little help from Google, we have access to a fairly good translation, which is provided below.

One of the main characters in the article is Zeyno Baran of the Hudson Institute. Regular readers of Rastî will remember that back in June 2007, just before the last Turkish elections, there was a scandal from the Hudson Institute about various "war games" about Turkey that were under discussion there. If you need some background on that scandal, Hevallo also wrote some items on it, so do a search at his place for more info.

That should set you up nicely to understand all that's going on in the article from Info-Turk. I tried to straighten up a bit of the English below, but refer to the original French, at the link in the first paragraph, if something seems wildly off the mark.

Some rear bases network Ergenekon are in Washington

The investigation into the puppeteers behind the destabilization of Turkey revealed the involvement of a number of "temples" of the neo-conservative thought the USA, including the Hudson Institute, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Center for Security Policy of Frank Gaffney.

These think tanks have played a key role in the campaign to denigrate the party in power in Turkey since 2002, the Party of Justice and Development (AKP or Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi).

They served as a rear base for the network Ergenekon, a network of the extreme right involving the "Grey Wolves" currently being dismantled by Turkish authorities as suspected of plotting a military coup, according to a new "strategy of tension "in the wake of well-known stay-behind network, Gladio.

At the centre of this operation is a certain Zeyno Baran, American citizen of Turkish origin at the Hudson Institute, where there is also David Wurmser and neo-con "frenchy" Laurent Murawiec.

On 2 August, Ms. Baran has almost openly defended Ergenekon in an article published by the Wall Street Journal under the title "Turkish Islamists inspire a new climate of fear".

Disappointed that the USA and the EU have welcomed the decision of the Constitutional Court not to declare the AKP anti-constitutional, it describes the investigation by the Justice Turkish campaign of harassment against opposition.

It is not surprising that she was outraged that the name of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has been mentioned in this context.

"The most important newspaper of the opposition Turkish Cumhuyiyet seems to be a key target. The telephone lines of those editors were placed under listening, and some conversations supposedly against the AKP party were revealed by the press" (this is a lie, because the press discovered them in a report on the investigation made public.) -- Including a transcript of a private conversation between the American newspaper correspondent of a Turkish journal and members of Dick Cheney's staff."

Ms. Baran then complains that Ilhan Selcuk, a major newspaper columnist, has been indicted as a suspect in the Ergenekon case.

Ms. Baran is the wife of Matthew J. Bryza, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs since June 2005. A career diplomat, Bryza spent his life between Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and dealing with hot spots like South Ossetia, Abkhazia and gas pipelines that have caused so much tension since the collapse of the USSR. It will not be surprised that Mr. Bryza is frequently invited as a speaker at the Hudson Institute.

It should be noted here that General Suka Tanyeri, director general of the Strategic Research and Study Center [SAREM, the Turkish General Staff's Strategic Research and Study Center] of the American major state, has been retired.

The American press suggests that one reason for this decision may come from his presence at special sessions, held behind closed doors by the Hudson Institute in June 2007, where delirious scenarios on a possible destabilization of Turkey were discussed.

At the time, this conference, which Baran had attended, had created some noise because it took place during the elections. One of the scenarios studied considering the explosion of two bombs, including one in the greatest city in the country Istanbul, killing some fifty people who would be assigned to the actions of extremist Kurdish PKK and serve to justify an invasion of Iraq.

Is it not surprising that today, [when there is] a full judicial inquiry into Ergenekon, and just when the Constitutional Court examined the legality of the AKP, two bombs have exploded? A bomb exploded in Istanbul and the other the next day in Kirkuk, a city in northern Iraq. Experts see it as a manipulation designed to poison relations which had recently improved.

(LPAC - http://www.solidariteetprogres.org/article4398.html, 7 August 2008)

Well, here's a newsflash for Zeyno Baran and everyone else: there has been another coup in Turkey, and it took place when the Constitutional Court, with a vote that was short only by one to close AKP, decided merely to fine AKP for its anti-secularism. The authors of the French article didn't bother to note how the votes in the court fell. Seven votes were needed for closure but there were only six votes out of eleven in that direction. There were ten votes out of eleven to charge AKP as a source of anti-secularism. Doesn't seem there was too much debate about that fact.

The reality is that now the regime in Ankara is truly Islamist and secularism was sold out by George W. Bush when he put R. Tayyip Erdoğan into power. The paşas, thus abandoned, had no choice but to cut a deal in Dolmabahçe in May 2007.

UNDER WHOSE CONTROL?

"While I am aware that the Turkish Prime Minister, Justice Minister and Interior Minister have expressed strong determination to uncover all dimensions of this incident and to expend every effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice, I would like to appeal to your Excellency’s Government to ensure that all deaths that occurred in connection with the Semdinli bookshop bombing are promptly, independently and thoroughly investigated in accordance with the Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions."
~ Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council

There was something interesting from Monday's Milliyet, titled, "A strange speech in the file". In the file is a report by a chairman of the National Forces Association, Fikri Karadağ, one of the accused in the Ergenekon case. The report is a three-page document with the title: "Now Turkey is under our control". This document is the transcription of a conversation between the Turkish Prime Minister, R. Tayyip Erdoğan and the current Chief of the Turkish General Staff, Yaşar Büyükanıt. At the time, Büyükanıt was the TSK Land Forces Commander. The report is a documentation of a secret meeting between the two, and can be found in the annexes of the Ergenekon indictment.

Note that, given the information the document references about the Şemdinli bombing, the meeting probably took place sometime in 2006, before Büyükanıt became the Chief of the Turkish General Staff.

The dialog, as published in Milliyet, is as follows:

Büyükanıt: Mr. Prime Minister the evidence and intelligence that we received shows that TSK and your government is part of a cabal, and you cannot expect us the attitude that you have toward TSK and toward the set-up by foreign supporters against YAŞ (Higher Military Assemblage). If we, as the TSK, did not give any reaction to this, within the constitutional platforms and to your department, it's because we do not want to give support to anyone who wants to lead our country into chaos. Because then they would say, "TSK talked, and the economy collapsed." That is why we did not speak openly to the public. However, we cannot stand anymore for the moves of your party, with the support of foreigners, against TSK.

Erdoğan: My dear Pasha, please don't fear. There won't be any economic crisis in Turkey just because "TSK spoke". We have agreed with the world's most prominent financial institutions, and whatever is supposed to be investigated about you and TSK regarding the Şemdinli incident, this investigation will be done. Turkey is no longer under TSK's control. Turkey will be a country under the control of the people. And there won't be anything wrong with the economy if a paşa from the TSK talks. We are cooperating together with the world's richest groups, like Rockefeller.

Büyükanıt: Mr. Prime Minister, this tone of speech is not the kind of speech of Turkey's prime minister. Did you agree with the world's most prominent financial institutions in order to block TSK from fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities? Mr. Prime Minister, you are in a cabal against Turkey. Behind the Semdinli incident, there is the intelligence service of this foreign forces, who brought your party into power. Mr. Prime Minister, if TSK is investigated, TSK will be cleared. I will be cleared. But you will be the one who is blamed. The Chief of General Staff (Hilmi Özkök), by not seeing the necessity of investigating me, saved TSK's honor. However, if Şemdinli is investigated thoroughly, everyone will see you and your undersecretariat, and those foreign forces that supported you. You are forgetting that your government is representing the state of the Turkish Republic. Mr. Prime Minister, you are not the Turkish Republic's prime minister, but you are Rockefeller's prime minister.

Erdoğan: My dear Paşa, your intelligence is wrong. Behind the Şemdinli incident are the "TSK Warlords".

Büyükanıt: Those "Warlords" are among those who carried AKP to power. Behind you and your party are these "Warlords". Some of our allies are using you and your party as a Trojan horse. You are not the prime minister of the Turkish Republic, but you are the prime minister of the "Warlords". You set up the "bagging incident" against TSK in order to punish it, with the cooperation with those forces who carried you to power, among whom is the US. The English and Zionists set up the Şemdinli incident in order to keep you in power. You are a coward who does not trust the Turkish people, but who trusts Zionists. TSK, sooner or later, will reveal this fact.

Erdoğan: Turkey is under our control. TSK is also under my control. Whoever I want as a paşa, I can appoint him to the General Staff. We have agreed with the US. We are going to have a joint operation with Iraq, Iran, and Syria. We are a partner of the US in the Greater Middle East Project; the US also sees us as their partner. Dear Paşa, Turkey is no longer in TSK's hands.

Büyükanıt: I will have to report this conversation to the Chief of General Staff. You are not a genuine Muslim. You cannot be a citizen of the Turkish Republic. Your attitude is clearly treachery and your treachery will not go without punishment. The people suffered a lot from fake religionists, fake Atatürkists, fake nationalists, and fake democrats, but, at the end, all of them were punished.

Erdoğan: You are not capable of anything. Turkey has been passed to other hands, and is still passing. Everything is under our control, and my advice to you is to also join us.

Büyükanıt: Mr. Prime Minister, I cannot join in treachery with you.

Erdoğan: You misunderstood me (Meanwhile Paşa--Büyükanıt--is trying to leave the room; Erdoğan blocks him and says). . . We are going to punish the Şemdinli prosecutor in the Şemdinli incident. There are some groups that might be against TSK [and] the extension of those groups investigated the incident.

Büyükanıt: These attitudes and flattery are not good [qualities] in a prime minister and I am leaving this disgusting environment. This meeting is over.

At this, Büyükanıt goes and following incidents are written in the report in parenthesis, by saying that Erdoğan called a couple of places by phone. He is described as "very nervous, and, quoting Erdoğan, "Find someone to calm Paşa. We made a big mistake. Whoever said that Yaşar Büyükanıt is open to every kind of offer, mislead us. Find that name." Erdoğan's orders and condemnation followed in the phone conversation.

First of all, the appearance here is one of two gangsters bargaining over some trinket in the Kapalı Çarşı. Bear in mind that this bargaining eventually led to the Dolmabahçe Deal. Part of that deal was the recognition by TSK of Gül as president. In return, in September 2007, AKP permitted the Paşas to intensify their Dirty War in The Southeast. That, in turn, led to further cooperation in the Ergenekon investigation, which has only managed to arrest and indict the old, well-known members of Ergenekon.

Then we have the appearance of the documentation of a 2006 secret meeting between the soon-to-be Chief of Turkish General Staff, Büyükanıt, and Erdoğan, who was, indeed, brought to power by the Bush administration. This document forms part of the supporting documentation of the Ergenekon indictment. If it's a bogus file, why is it in the indictment? If it's bogus, and it's in the indictment anyway, then what about the credibility of the rest of the indictment and supporting documentation?

What then, does that say about AKP's alleged crusade against the Deep State? Remember that AKP has been claiming that the end of the Ergenekon investigation is the end of the Deep State. Yet the Prime Ministry is less than thrilled that this file is annexed to their own indictment and calls it bogus. If it's a bogus file, why is it in the indictment, especially since AKP has been trying to appear as pure as the driven snow throughout this investigation? If it's bogus, and it's in the indictment anyway, then what about the credibility of the rest of the indictment and supporting documentation? What does that say about AKP's public show against Ergenekon?

Above all, the show must go on. As for justice in the Şemdinli bombing . . . fuhgeddaboudit!

TUMBLING DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

"I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice. Tumbling down the rabbit hole?"
~ Morpheus, The Matrix.

Having reviewed a number of news links from last week on the Ergenekon case, I decided that the one to devote time to, was the one by Taraf's Yasemin Çongar, from 30 July, titled: "Deniz Baykal is also in Ergenekon's schema".

Taraf created a stir earlier this summer when it published the details of TSK's "Information Support Activity Plan". A few days after the news broke, Yasemin Çongar gave a summarized explanation of the plan in an interview with Spiegel Online. Taraf also broke the news about TSK's blundering of the Dağlıca raid, as discussed at Azadixwaz. Then there was the revelation in Taraf that Turkish constitutional court judge Osman Paksüt held several secret meetings with very-soon-to-be chief of the Turkish general staff, İlker Başbuğ. Paksüt was one of the judges hearing the for-show-only AKP closure case.

Taraf has been doing what journalists are supposed to be doing, exposing the ugly underbelly of political machinery. That's one big reason why I chose to work on Çongar's discussion of the CHP chairman's name in the Ergenekon lists.

Much has been made in the last few weeks in the Turkish media about alleged links between PKK and Öcalan and the Ergenekon gang; however, aside from an Ergenekon plan called "The Antidote", linked to Veli Küçük and, in the indictment (first part, pages 120-121), also linked to Ümit Oğuztan, there is no other mention of Abdullah Öcalan, in the first part of the indictment. "The Antidote" was a scheme by Ergenekon to take over control of the PKK through Öcalan, although the time frame involved here appears to be since Öcalan's incarceration at Imralı. There is no evidence presented in the indictment that "The Antidote" was carried out. Linked to the information on "The Antidote", is more information from a now deceased Ergenekon member, Kuddusi Okkır, that Ergenekon had other plans consistent with "The Antidote" in every way except for the mention of Öcalan or PKK. The consistency according to these plans was that Ergenekon envisioned "seeding" all kinds of state organizations--"from the Army to MİT, from the police to the Diyanet, from the judiciary to the state . . . "--and thereby takeover the TC.

Let me reiterate: There was only one of these plans, "The Antidote", that mentioned PKK as a target of Ergenekon "seeding," and there is no mention of evidence showing that any kind of "seeding" was actually carried out within PKK or with Öcalan. If there were a concrete cooperation between Ergenekon and PKK, as Turkish media asserts, then why would Veli Küçük need to covertly attempt to create a "linkage" with PKK by sending spies to take over the organization or gain Öcalan's consent for such a scheme? Cooperation is between two willing parties, but to have to create "linkage", as mentioned in the indictment, indicates that there is resistance to any cooperation on the part of the PKK.

The one hard piece of evidence cited is a very old, widely published photo of Serok Apo with Doğu Perinçek, the chairman of the Workers' Party, who has been indicted as an Ergenekon member. An old article of Perinçek's from 1995, in which he describes what should be the Workers' Party approach to the Kurdish situation is also available online. However, the fact that the photo of Öcalan and Perinçek was widely published proves nothing of a PKK link to Ergenekon. If anyone wants to go down that road, they will have to link Mehmet Ali Birand, Nazlı Ilıcak, Cengiz Çandar, Ahmet Altan, and Yasemin Çongar herself, among others, with the Ergenekon lists because all of them have interviewed either Öcalan or members of KCK's executive council at one time or another. But those people are not named in the lists. If they were, Yasemin Çongar would have found her name in the lists, along with the other famous Taraf journalist, Ahmet Altan, and she would have written her own defense instead of raising questions about Deniz Baykal's place on the list.

It would appear, however, that the lies surrounding the issue of "The Antidote" stem from Tuncay Güney, a one-time, small-time journalist in whose possession the original Ergenekon documents were found in 2001. Güney has been linked to Fethullah Gülen and Gülen's Samanyolu TV. Güney claims to have brought the photos of Öcalan and Perinçek to MİT. He claims to have taken a bribe of $15,000 to PKK in order not to shut down Gülen's schools in Hewler, although how PKK would have had any control over anything in Hewler is a huge question. Perhaps the KDP took the bribe by introducing themselves as PKK members? Güney also claıms to have delivered money from Fethullah Gülen to ultra-fascist Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu so that he could establish the BBP.

Zaman has some additional weird tidbits about Güney:

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Yeni Şafak daily, Tuncay Güney, a former journalist whose ties with various secret services, both domestic and international, have been documented, stated that Kurdish separatist terrorism would come to an end if the Ergenekon gang wanted that to happen. Güney, who now lives in Canada and works as a rabbi, has suspected ties to the group. Güney came to prominence when the first documents related to the Ergenekon gang were seized on his computer in a 2001 police raid.

Güney, currently a rabbi at the Jacobs House Jewish Community Center in Toronto, praised Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Öz for having “done a great job” so far in the investigation, although he expressed doubts that the operation would be very successful in the end. “However, they are very close to the end and I think it is very difficult moving on further from this point. There is no power in Turkey that can stop Ergenekon,” he said, expressing doubts that the investigation will bring about the collapse of the crime group.

A check of YouTube reveals that Güney does, in fact, appear to be a member of an Orthodox Jewish community in Toronto, although he now denies any connection with Fethullah Gülen, as his appearance on Mehmet Ali Birand's 32. Gün indicates. If the first Ergenekon documents were found in Güney's possession, why has he not been indicted? Did he cut a deal and, if so, what kind of deal was it? Is his life now, in an Orthodox Jewish community in Toronto some kind of strange "witness protection" program?

Furthermore, during the 1990s, many who were named in Ergenekon's indictment were holding meetings with PKK and presenting themselves as active representatives of the TC, and PKK tried to negotiate with them in good faith with that representation. These meetings were held in order to reach a solution to the Kurdish situation, as discussed earlier this week on Özgür Gündem. As ÖG points out throughout the article, such meetings were publicized by the media forerunners of ÖG. It is impossible to blame PKK for having a connection with those people as members of a covert "terrorist" organization, when PKK accepted them as authentic representatives of government holding the power to carry out sincere negotiations, and that's with an authenticity that those people themselves presented as legitimate.

Finally, the almost 2,500-page Ergenekon indictment has been released to the public, Word document here or at Hürriyet. If there were a concrete relationship between Öcalan or the PKK, and Ergenekon, there would be plenty of ammunition to fill pages and pages of daily publications and hours and hours of broadcast airtime. But there is nothing . . . except an old photo that, for years before anyone knew the name "Ergenekon", has been widely available to anyone who can search Google, and a plan, unimplemented, called "The Antidote".

Instead, here is a summary of the indictment contents by Nabi Yağcı at TDN:

Although I wrote repeatedly that I had no doubts about some coup preparations, frankly I was not expecting such a loaded Ergenkon indictment and that the prosecutors can dare a thorough investigation. I think that's why the indictment caused a “shock” in the press. We had already heard so many matters, relations or incidents long before the indictment was publicly announced. But still, this indictment is shocking not because of its being an in-depth examination or not because of the well-known personas involved in this suit.

[ . . . ]

In short, my first impression of the indictment was first of all that the likelihood of a coup was so high, and secondly I was struck by its content. There are clear signs about the Susurluk and Şemdinli incidents. Although the indictment does not directly include the murders by unknown perpetrators in the Southeast, they were pointed out too. We see that some of the Ergenekon leaders are trained for operations against Kurds in the Southeast. This will be extremely important in the public eye. The indictment reaches the murders of Hrant Dink, Necip Hablemitoğlu and Uğur Mumcu, the Council of State attack, and even Cyprus.

Again, no mention of cooperation between Öcalan or PKK and Ergenekon.

Now, on to Yasemin Çongar's editorial piece, from Taraf:

Deniz Baykal Is Also in Ergenekon's Schema


Previously, we had written an article headlined in Taraf.

One part of the article, written on 11 July 2008, was as follows:

************

"It was about five years ago.

"The Turkish National Intelligence agency (MİT) sent a top secret report to the Prime Ministry.

"The topic was Ergenekon.

"MİT's document included the Ergenekon gang's schema, and this organization's investigation was requested.

"In the organization's schema, dated 2003, there were politicians', businessmen's, and journalists' names [listed] as Ergenekon members.

"Among the politicians, a party's chairman's name grabs attention.

"In the gang's list of journalists, a general editor of a big news daily, its Ankara representative, and a very popular journalist are listed.

"Among Ergenekon's businessmen, there were [listed] both industrialists and media bosses, too.

"It cannot be proof that those people on the Ergenekon lists were doing anything for Ergenekon, either consciously or unconsciously.

"But, it shows this:

"A series of names who are active today in politics, business, and media, were reported by MİT to the Prime Ministry that they might have a relationship with Ergenekon and should be investigated.

"MİT collected intelligence about Ergenekon, which is thought of as a "legend" by some people, conveyed this suspicion and intelligence, to the Prime Ministry with the emphasis that it should be investigated.

"I'm not going to write the names, in order not to implicate anyone.

"I will just let it go at this: the Prime Ministry conveyed this document on 2 July 2008 to the people who are responsible for the investigation of Ergenekon."

************

It was reflected in the indictment like this

Two weeks after the publication of this article [referring to the schema article above], and the headline in Taraf as "MİT has Ergenekon's organizational schema", the Ergenekon indictment was released.

On pages 49 and 50 of the indictment, the information which Taraf published was evaluated under the title, "MİT Undersecretariat's Report Regarding the Ergenekon Terrorist Organization".

In short, the MİT Undersecretariat presented this document, the information for which was received by an unknown source in 2002, and is considered as a booklet that contained information characteristic of an indictment, first, in 2003, to the General Staff, then to the Prime Ministry, and a summary of the study was sent to the Prime Ministry and General Staff again in 2006, as stated by the Ergenekon indictment.

The indictment, in this same section, gives a large quotation from a writing that was sent in 2003 from MİT to the Prime Ministry.

In this quote, under "Conclusions", MİT's evaluation is quoted as follows:

"Based on current information, though we are not certain, we have the impression that the works that are being implemented using the name "Ergenekon" are the endavours for organizing a group which targets "state/regime" for their own benefits."

"However, the information came about in an indictment form from various sources that are parallel and consistent with each other, gives meaning that is more than gossip, and it indicates the signs of a directed and organized activity.

"For this reason, the current information about the [indicates that the] subject aims to gain control over civilian will covertly, and the creation of a new administration with a new formation under the directed control of cadres of people who have a military origin, using some non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and political parties as well as the media."

The related part in the indictment concludes as "Ergenekon is identified as an illegal organization by MİT Undersecretariat itself and this has been recorded with an official report".

The names that MİT conveyed

Yesterday, we discussed CHP chairman Deniz Baykal's group speech in Taraf's editorial section.

He seemed like a "deep" attorney; he had a shallow defense.

He was targetting the Ergenekon prosecutors directly; he was belittling the indictment.

In one part of his speech, he used this ironic phrase: "According to the indictment, Ergenekon has a long history; however, MİT is unaware of this."

Actually Baykal's words were no different than the other volunteer gang attorneys' writings, who try to blacken the Ergenekon case.

Again, we had a hard time understanding the intention of his words, [coming from someone] whom we know as a pro-state party leader, which seemed to support an organization that the state's MİT and several more state departments, including TSK, think it would be beneficial to investigate this organization.

We thought Baykal was defending not the state, but the "Deep State".

With this thought, today while preparing our first page of the newspaper, we learned that the MİT report that I wrote an article about on 11 July, would be among the annexes of the Ergenekon indictment, which would be released on 1 August.

We remembered that among the politicians linked to the organization, the political party leader Deniz Baykal existed in the schemas of the annexes of the mentioned document [the report from MİT] in 2003, named "Ergenekon".

We don't know whether Baykal or the people listed in the MİT document that will be released on Friday, have any link with Ergenekon.

However, as I mentioned on 11 July, all we can say is "it is reported from MİT to the Prime Ministry that today there are names that are active in the political arena, business, and media, that might be linked to Ergenekon".

Based on the details in the indictment, we learn that this claim might have been conveyed to MİT by an unknown source.

Maybe this claim is not true, but it is obvious that MİT felt compelled to report this schema to the Prime Ministry in 2003.

In addition, a summary of the study was resent to the Prime Ministry in 2006; the General Staff also received the same reports in 2003 and 2006.

Inevitably, one gets curious:

What did the Ergenekon prosecutors, who are aware of these reports, the schemas, the lists of names, think about Deniz Baykal's severe criticism against them?

And I wonder whether or not Baykal knew there were documents about his links with Ergenekon, when he first started acting like Ergenekon's attorney?

And I wonder why the first Ergenekon documents were found in 2001, another anonymous source gave information in 2002, MİT notified Erdoğan and the TSK in 2003 and again in 2006, and nothing was acted upon until 2008? I wonder why the Ergenekon investigation only began in earnest in July 2007, with the discovery of Ergenekon's weapons cache in Istanbul Ümraniye, during the same month as the last general elections and two months after the May 2007 Dolmabahçe Deal between Erdoğan and Büyükanıt? I wonder why only those well-known as Deep Staters have been indicted and not the entire, active organization?

And I wonder how deep the rabbit hole really goes?

THE VARIETIES OF TREASON

"Is there not some chosen curse,
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven,
Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man
Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin?"
~ Joseph Addison.

Guess who's arranging an oil deal between Turkey, Kazakhstan, and "Northern Iraq"? The Prince of Darkness himself. Yes, that would be prominent neocon and Turkish agent, Richard Perle. A little bird dropped this into my email today:

Iraq War Advocate Denies Taking Part In a Consortium


Influential former Pentagon official Richard Perle has been exploring going into the oil business in Iraq and Kazakhstan, according to people with knowledge of the matter and documents outlining possible deals.

Mr. Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been discussing a possible deal with officials of northern Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, including its Washington envoy, according to these people and the documents.

It would involve a tract called K18, near the Kurdish city of Erbil, according to documents describing the plan. A consortium founded by Turkish company AK Group International is seeking rights to drill there, the documents say. Potential backers include two Turkish companies as well as Kazakhstan, according to individuals involved.

AK's chief executive is Aydan Kodaloglu, who, like Mr. Perle, has been involved with the American Turkish Council, an advocacy group in Washington. She didn't respond to requests for comment. Phyllis Kaminsky, who identified herself as the U.S. contact for Ms. Kodaloglu, said she herself was aware of the drilling plan but referred questions about it to Mr. Perle.

"Richard would know the most," Ms. Kaminsky said. "He is involved, I know that."

This comes from the WSJ, but you'll need a subscription to read it there.

Now the KRG sees fit to do business with this bunch of devils? This is treason against the Kurdish people.

Aydan Kodaloğlu, the founder of the AK Group International in question, is a former board member of the ATC (American Turkish Council--not so much an "advocacy group" as an MİT asset), and "is a recognized expert on Turkish-American and Turkish-Israeli relations. Ms. Kodaloglu was a member of official delegations of former President Turgut Ozal and Prime Ministers Suleyman Demirel, and Tansu Ciller and was involved in the planning for the official visit to Turkey of former U.S. President George Bush." So this woman is clearly no friend of the Kurdish people and there should be extreme public censure of those Kurds who choose to do business with her.

That the Prince of Darkness himself has a pedigree that's also hostile to the Kurdish people, as well as to any theoretical description of democracy. Perle holds a position of prominence in Sibel Edmonds' gallery of rogues but, as Sibel's information shows, scumbags like Perle have long profited from Turkey and for Turkey:

Someone has to be in the middle (of the Turkish, Israeli, American military/economic machine) to keep the happy affair going, so enter the neocons, intent on securing Israel against all comers and also keen to turn a dollar. In fact the neocons seem to have a deep and abiding interest in Turkey, which, under other circumstances, might be difficult to explain. Doug Feith's International Advisors Inc, a registered agent for Turkey in 1989 - 1994, netted $600,000 per year from Turkey, with Richard Perle taking $48,000 annually as a consultant.

[ . . . ]

Contracts in the hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars provide considerable fat for those well placed to benefit. Investigators are also looking at Israel's particular expertise in the illegal sale of US military technology to countries like China and India. Fraudulent end-user certificates produced by Defense Ministries in Israel and Turkey are all that is needed to divert military technology to other, less benign, consumers. The military-industrial-complex/neocon network is also well attested. Doug Feith has been associated with Northrup Grumman for years, while defense contractors fund many neocon-linked think tanks and "information" services. Feith, Perle and a number of other neocons have long had beneficial relationships with various Israeli defense contractors.

There's more on that at Deep Journal. Let's not forget that Perle was one of the co-authors of the "Clean Break" that created the alliance between the members of the Iron Triangle--the US, Israel, and Turkey.

Kiss democracy in South Kurdistan goodbye; Show's over, folks.

The Ankara regime is using the excuse of the Güngören bombing to bomb civilians in South Kurdistan. Fırat News reports that the villagers have emptied Bokriskan village in the Qendil region. The Turkish military conducted aerial bombing over the Balekan valley, Lewce, Inzo, and Bokriskan villages, and Geliye Bedran. In the villages where civilians were targeted, a lot of animals have been killed and the irrigation project under construction in Bokriskan has been totally destroyed. The people themselves have fled to Çoman and Ranya.

The PUK confirmed the attacks. HPG confirmed that Turkish aircraft had bombed civilian areas and also confirmed that it suffered no casualties--in stark contrast to the BS being served up in Turkish media. The attacks started forest fires in the Zap and Haftanin regions. Not too surprising as the entire region has been suffering a severe drought for months now.

On 27 July, the Turkish military conducted a comprehensive attack against PJAK positions, reinforcing the fact that Turkey and Iran are cooperating in their war against the Kurdish people.

On 24 July, Turkish aircraft attacked Çemço, Saca, and Şamke villages in the Zap region. On 19 July at 1920 hours, TSK artillery shelled the villages of Maye, Ormana, and Ura, in Kanimasi, Amediye region. At 0200 hours on the same day, Turkish bombing began and did not end until 0720 hours. On 18 July at 1230 hours, Turkish aircraft bombed the Deraluk district, Nerwe and Rekane villages, also in the Amediye region.

Yesterday, I mentioned that the grenades found in the Ergenekon house in Istanbul Ümraniye had been traced to Şemdinli. Today, Radikal has a fairly long article on the subject. To make a long story short, the Ergenekon chief prosecutor Zekeriya Öz ordered an investigation into the grenades. That investigation shows that the grenades were seized in a police operation against Turkish Hezbollah in Şırnak, in 1999. There, the grenades were further linked to a TSK major, Mehmet Zekeriya Öztürk, an Ergenekon member who had been stationed in Şırnak from August 1997 to August 1999.

Yaşar Büyükanıt, now the chief of the Turkish general staff, served in The Southeast from 1997 to 2000. Like the Ergenekon grenades, Büyükanıt was also linked to the Şemdinli bombing when he admitted that he knew the bombers, TSK non-commissioned officers Ali Kaya and Özcan İldeniz. Büyükanıt said that he knew them and that they were "good boys". In fact, Büyükanıt knew them so well that when Van prosecutor Ferhat Sarıkaya tried to indict Büyükanıt for his involvement in the Şemdinli bombing, Sarıkaya was told to shut up, go away, and don't bother practicing law ever again.

Büyükanıt is also a party to the Dolmabahçe Deal with the AKP. And so the Deep State comes full circle.

GÜNGÖREN AS OPPORTUNITY

"To open the Susurluk file means challenging the system. Neither Erdogan nor Baykal have such a concern."
~ Fikri Sağlar, former Parliament Susurluk Investigation Commission member.

HPG issued a statement today on the Güngören bombing:

HPG: We have nothing to do with the attack in Güngören

A statement came from HPG regarding the explosion in Istanbul Güngören against civilians which resulted in 18 casualties.

In the statement, from HPG Headquarters Command, titled "To our people and public", HPG stated that it does not have anything to do with the attack in Güngören."

KCK also issued a denial and condemnation:

KCK: Baykal is trying to conceal the attackers

KCK condemned the attack against civilians in Istanbul Güngören, gave their condolences to the relatives of the dead, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded. KCK mentioned that the attacks were the work of hidden forces. Quoting from CHP chairman Deniz Baykal, "more than likely PKK did it," KCK said: "Baykal is trying to conceal the real perpetrators by this quote."

[ . . . ]

"One of the strategic goals of the Kurdish Freedom Movement is not being only Kurdistan's social movement but at the same time, it aims to gain the Turkish people and create living conditions based on the peoples' brotherhood and equality. In this respect, it is impossible for us to implement such an attack in Güngören given the fact that our goal is to gain the hearts of the Turkish people. Our movement never targeted civilians directly. In addition, our movement refused all kinds of violence that exceeds our right to self-defense and see such violence as counter-productive and terrorism."

Of course, there's a very good reason why Baykal is so hot to blame PKK for the Güngören bombings. Today, Baykal is calling for protests from all people as a reaction to the bombings. But why is Baykal calling for protest against this incident but never called for protests against the Şemdinli bombing?

One week ago, on 19 July, the Turkish general staff released a statement in the finest tradition of e-coups. In their statement, they said: "It is a natural expectation for the Turkish people to show their legal and democratic reaction to the unlawful attacks against the TSK". The Ergenekon investigation revealed that active duty TSK lieutenants were involved in forming a terrorist organization within the state. The paşas didn't like this exposure of the truth, so they urged the people to demonstrate in favor of them. Unfortunately for the paşas, the people did no such thing.

In order to conjure an excuse to make people take to the streets in defense of the very helpless TSK, they needed an incident: Güngören. This is why Baykal now takes the opportunity to whip the people into a frenzy and, in addition to drumming up support for TSK, he would also like to see a street mob out against AKP.

The icing on the cake can be found in a video at Fethullah Gülen's Zaman. The home video was filmed from a balcony by a resident of Güngören.

In the video, the first bomb has already gone off and a crowd continues to gather. According to reports, there was about a 10 minute delay between the first bomb and the detonation of the second bomb. However, as you watch the video you will see something very unusual for Turkey. There has been an explosion some ten minutes earlier, and there are no police present. There are no police vehicles, no flashing lights, no one securing the crime scene. The police station is a five minute walk from the scene of the bombings; less by police vehicle. So why are no police there?

You see the second bomb explode in the video and still there are no police on the scene. Why? Where were your police, Celalettin Cerrah? They were all over Istanbul on May Day, yet they couldn't manage to show up to secure a crime scene that is within easy walking distance of their own station?

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. After all, it was a former Istanbul deputy police chief who was found dead in a Mercedes in Susurluk with a state's assassin and police collaborator dead at his side.

By the way, now that all the "experts" are pontificating, RDX is a component of common military explosives. That would most likely include the plastic explosive used in the Güngören bombing as well as in the grenades found in the Ergenekon cache in Ümraniye, which came from Şemdinli.

JOINT OPERATION IN DERSIM: YJA-STAR AND TKPML-TİKKO

"After this the soldiers stopped distinguishing between the male and the female fighters. I think they are now more afraid of the women because the women are more disciplined and they will never surrender. We will either kill or be killed. For me it is freedom, success or death. It is simple."
~ Heval Surbuz, YJA-STAR.

On 10 July there was a significant news item on Özgür Gündem which described a recent joint operation between YJA-STAR women guerrillas and the women guerrillas of the TKPML-TİKKO (Türkiye Komünist Partisi/Marksist-Leninist-Türk İşci ve Köylü Kurtuluş Ordusu; Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist-Turkish Workers' and Peasants' Liberation Army). I call it significant because I cannot recall a time in the past where PKK has conducted joint military operations with other groups inside Turkey, particularly with TKPML-TİKKO. Here's the link and a translation:

Joint operation with YJA-STAR and TİKKO women guerrillas

HPG announced that an operation that was implemented with heavy weapons against Çemişgezek (Dersim) police station was a joint operation of YJA-STAR and TKPML-TİKKO women guerrillas. In this joint operation, three police and eight Turkish soldiers were killed.

Mentioning the women guerrillas implemented three different operations, HPG said that on 8 - 9 July, three police and eight soldiers were killed around Çemişgezek's downtown. In the operations in Malazgirt and Savur, five Turkish soldiers were killed.

HPG-BİM revealed the details of the operation: "On 8 July YJA-STAR and TKPML-TİKKO women guerrillas carried out an operation from three directions toward Çemişgezek's downtown police guard shack, police station, and the hill where the military garrison is located," BİM also said that the guard shack was fired at by rockets at 22:40 hours; thus two police were killed and several soldiers suffered injuries.

In the operation, which lasted 45 minutes, the police station, police housing areas, and military garrison came under heavy weapons fire. One police was killed and an unknown number of police were wounded.

A military convoy that wanted to intervene in the operation was ambushed by the guerrillas. One panzer suffered major destruction; two troops in the panzer were killed and three wounded. BİM stated that after this operation the entrance and exit to Çemişgezek was blocked and a counter-operation began.

On 9 July an operation was executed by guerrillas against the hill where the Turkish forces were located. The operation lasted 20 intense minutes. BİM said, "After the clash, four soldiers were killed; our guerrillas suffered no casualties."

Special unit under surveillance

On the same day near Dersim downtown, a mobile TSK special unit was put under surveillance by YJA-STAR forces, said HPG BİM. HPG-BİM continued,"In the operation carried out against the special unit, which wanted to position itself at night, two troops were killed and three were wounded."

4 soldiers killed in Malazgirt

BİM stated that YJA-STAR forces also implemented an operation against Malazgirt's Muğidi regional garrison, located on a hill. The hill came under heavy weapons fire. One military emplacement was hit, which resulted in four soldiers killed. The counter-operation begun after this clash is still ongoing.

Clash in Savur

BİM stated that there was a clash with TSK, during an operation implemented by TSK in an area that included the villages of Günde Belizan, Avina, Darman, and Kunive. After an operation that was carried out by guerrillas in Tepe Şere, where TSK troops were positioned, one soldier was killed and three were wounded in this clash.

German detainees have also been released and more information is due out tomorrow. In the meantime, here's the HPG statement:

In its statement, HPG Serhat State Command said that the German hostages were released completely within HPG's will.

The Serhat State Command said, "As a result of the calls and attempts primarily from KCK, and international and democratic institutions and associations, the three German citizens that were detained were released today at noon after insuring their security. A detailed information will be shared with the public tomorrow about the release which occured with the cooperation of institutions and associations, and with our complete initiative."

In other news, maybe this is why the US is suddenly making nice with the mullahs, from RIA Novosti:

Foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will decide on whether to lift a moratorium on bringing in new states at a meeting in Tajikistan on July 25, a Russian diplomat said on Friday.

"The moratorium has lasted for two years. We have now decided to consider the possibility of the SCO's enlargement," a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Iran and Pakistan, observer states at the SCO since 2005, have sought full membership in the regional bloc comprising Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan and widely seen as a counterweight to NATO's influence in Eurasia.

The group primarily addresses security issues, but has recently moved to embrace various economic and energy projects.

That also may be why there have been reports in Iraqi media describing the possible construction of a US military base near Helebçe. If the SCO accepts Iran's request to be admitted to the organization as a full member, a US military airport near Helebçe could be a continuation of the American plan to expand NATO to the east, right alongside the border of the largest country in the SCO--Russia. And so the Cold War v.2 grinds on.


Ufuk Uras, leader of the Turkish ÖDP and member of DTP's parliamentary group, shows us why the Ergenekon investigation is bullshit:

"Turkey's recent history is full of coup plotters, politicians and public servants who were responsible for illegal operations and who have not been tried but walk around as 'gallants,'" he said in Parliament yesterday. Uras said failed coup plots named "Sarıkız" (Blonde Girl) and "Ayışığı" (Moonlight) against the government came to the agenda of Parliament's Human Rights Commission in April of last year but that most of the deputies were against investigating the alleged plots.

Uras, who started a signature campaign in May in Parliament, presented a motion to Parliament yesterday with the aim of opening an investigation into Sarıkız and Ayışığı. His initiative received the support of 20 deputies from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and Hakkari independent deputy Hamit Geylani. Deputies from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Democratic Left Party (DSP) refused to sign the motion in the 550-seat Parliament.

DTP parliamentarian Emine Ayna has been blazing the trail on the same subject for DTP. Her position, and that of the party has been quite clear and consistent:


[Ayna] underlined that the success of the Ergenekon investigation depends on its enlargement east of the Euphrates River.

Ayna criticized the government and claimed that when dark forces attacked Kurds, Christians and Alevis, the AK Party did nothing -- but when these same forces turned against the AK Party, it was spurred into action.

"Our stand is very clear: We think that the investigations should go to the very end. Actions against the government and all murders by unknown assailants should be investigated. The government is dictating the idea of 'either you are with me or you are Ergenekon.' We are saying that we are not pro AK Party, we are not pro coups and we are not pro Ergenekon," she said.


There is no serious investigation into Ergenekon and no one should expect that there will be. If the Turkish ruling elites were serious about dismantling the Deep State that Ergenekon represents, they would have reopened the Susurluk investigation and people like Mehmet Ağar would not be walking free. Mehmet Eymür would be extradited from the US. Tansu Çiller would be detained, and all that just for a start.

As Fikri Sağlar, the chairman for the parliamentary committee that investigated the Susurluk Affair, noted after the Council of State attack in May 2006:

"To open the Susurluk file means challenging the system. Neither Erdogan nor Baykal have such a concern."

At the time, Sağlar further noted that CHP head Deniz Baykal dismissed the Susurluk Affair as "nonsense", which is exactly Baykal's characterization of the Ergenekon investigation.

Some things never change, do they?

For more on the insanity that is Turkish politics, make sure you stop by The Pasha and the Gypsy for Gordon Taylor's latest summation of the situation.