Arms cache unearthed in Ankara

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Excavations had continued for the whole day in three different locations when the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to print late Friday afternoon. Police had only found ammunitions in a forest in the suburb of Gölbaşı. Two light anti-tank weapons, 10 hand grenades without serial numbers and bullets of Israeli made Uzi weapons were found in Gölbaşı. The private NTV said weapons were covered with newspapers dated July 2004, but CNNTürk said "these weapons were buried five or six months ago."

Authorities said the weapons and ammunitions would be examined at police laboratories and later would be sent to Istanbul where the Ergenekon inquiry is being carried out. It will only be understood which incidents these weapons were used in after a complicated ballistic investigation, according to authorities.

Other diggings took place in more residential areas, one just as meters away from the headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP. Another took place at the Atatürk Forest Farm, or AOÇ, and nearby forest. Police took extensive security measures during the investigation. NTV said excavations would continue in the Bala and Mamak districts of Ankara over the weekend.

Susurluk or Ergenekon
Şahin, a former police chief, was one of the leading figures of the 1996 Susurluk scandal that unveiled a collaboration between members of the security forces, politicians and gangsters in acts committed outside the law, including murders of Kurdish dissidents.

Some media reports suggested Friday's dig could shed light on the fate of weapons procured from Israel that went missing during Şahin's term and are believed to have been used in illicit operations. It was not immediately clear how Şahin is linked to Ergenekon, a group of anti-government secularists who allegedly plotted assassinations to create political chaos in Turkey in a bid to prompt a military coup against the AKP. Political observers have said they think Şahin’s detention is an effort to investigate the link between the Susurluk case and Ergenekon. "Susurluk is within Ergenekon. It is not possible to think of them as separate. Those who are in custody and suspects under arrest have similarities. Guns that have been found confirm this," Mehmet Elkatmış, former head of the Susurluk Committee, said.

Recalling the search for missing guns during the Susurluk investigation, Elkatmış said many assault rifles had been purchased from an Israeli company and handed over to Şahin. "Many of these rifles were lost and not mentioned in the records. When we asked for their locations, we were told that they had kept the guns, but as it was a state secret, they could not reveal the location of them," Elkatmış said, and added that these people should have handed over the materials to related authorities when they retired.

"They did not (hand them over) and buried them in different places. Where were these guns used? There are thousands of unsolved murders, I wonder if some of these guns were used in these incidents?" he said. Former member of the parliamentary investigation committee of the Susurluk case, Fikri Sağlar, also remembered the latest developments in the Susurluk case and said it was a very important to investigate the past. Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan described the newly-found ammunition in the Gölbaşı district as "interesting."

In relation to the latest developments, AKP Deputy Parliamentary Group Leader Nihat Ergün said there was nothing to do except follow the developments. "We hope these developments lead to an lightning of the dark corners of recent Turkish history. We hope these investigations will not give an opportunity to those who want to prevent the lightning of those dark corners and want to darken the future," Ergün added. When asked about the opposition’s previous view that criticized the Ergenekon operation, Ergün said even one gun could cause great problems.