Owner of daily newspaper detained in Ergenekon probe

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Supporters of the Workers’ Party hold a protest in front of the Atılım daily headquarters in Istanbul against the detention. DHA Photo

Law enforcement officials detained four people yesterday within the scope of the ongoing Ergenekon probe, including Mehmet Sabuncu, the owner of daily Aydınlık, while around 100 supporters of the Workers’ Party (İP) gathered before Sabuncu’s flat to protest the raid.

“They are terribly afraid of us because we are defending the country. We are going to call everything to account. We do not fear repression. Aydınlık has no single owner, it has thousands. Aydınlık’s owner is the people,” the daily’s editor-in-chief, Serhan Bolluk, said in a press statement he issued while security forces were still searching Sabuncu’s flat.

Istanbul police arrived at Sabuncu’s house in the district of İçerenköy around 7 a.m. Tuesday and conducted a search for six hours. Security officials also conducted a separate search in the offices of the İP in the Çorlu province of the northwestern province of Tekirdağ.

İP leader Doğu Perinçek is on trial under arrest in the Ergenekon case.

Retired Maj. Zafer Şen, retired military judge Bahadır Berk and one more suspect were also taken under custody by the police as part of the Ergenekon trials.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officers launched another series of simultaneous raids in Istanbul and the Mediterranean province of Antalya yesterday, detaining 13 alleged members of the Revolutionary Headquarters, an outlawed and armed left-wing organization.

A dozen suspects were taken to the police department after going through health checks in Istanbul, while suspect T.T., 26, a high school security guard who was only identified by his initials, was sent to Istanbul after being taken into custody in Antalya, according to reports.

The suspects were detained on the charge of “being a member of and aiding and abetting an outlawed organization,” while police officers reportedly seized large quantities of organizational documents and digital material during the raids.

Among high-profile suspects in the ongoing Revolutionary Headquarters trials is Hanefi Avcı, a former police chief who wrote a book titled “Haliç’te Yaşayan Simonlar: Dün Devlet Bugün Cemaat” (Devotee Residents of Haliç: Yesterday State, Today Religious Community), which alleges that the religious Gülen community has covertly taken control of the state.

Avcı was arrested following the book’s publication, although he was earlier known to have been close to the Gülen community.

Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist gang that is accused of plotting to overthrow the government by fomenting chaos in society.

Compiled from Anatolia News Agency and the Doğan News Agency stories by the Daily News staff in Istanbul.