Battery of charges filed in Ergenekon

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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The add-on indictment makes accusations against 56 suspects, 19 of whom are under arrest, and is the first such document to be added to the original, which contained 86 suspects.

The add-on indictment accuses the alleged Ergenekon gang of trying to topple the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government, according to reports on news channel CNN-Türk and Kanal D reporters.

A second add-on indictment involving 77 more suspects, 48 of whom are under arrest, is currently underway, reports said.

The Ergenekon case started after the discovery of 27 hand grenades June 12, 2007, in a shanty house in Istanbul's Ümraniye district belonging to a retired noncommissioned officer. The grenades were found to be the same as those used in the attacks on daily Cumhuriyet’s Istanbul offices in 2006.

The findings led to scores of detentions, putting more than 100 journalists, writers, gang leaders and politicians under interrogation in what turned into a terror investigation that sought to crack down on an alleged ultra-nationalist gang named Ergenekon, which sought to topple the government by staging a coup in 2009 through initially inciting chaos. Earlier bombings of daily Cumhuriyet, the murder of Hrant Dink, the murder of the top judge of the Council of State and alleged plans for the assassination of high-profile figures in politics are sometimes associated with the case. The list of detainees includes retired generals Şener Eruygur and Hürşid Tolon and retired Major Gen. Veli Küçük.

Many detainees are retired officials who gathered in associations linked to the ultra-nationalist Kuvayi Milliye (National Forces) Ğ a reference to irregular forces that led the Turkish independence war back in early the 1920s.

The add-on indictment submitted to court Tuesday accuses Eruygur and Tolon, in addition to 10 other suspects, of being the leaders of the alleged gang and efforts to subvert the government and Parliament through violence. Charges carry a sentence of life imprisonment if found guilty.

Tolon and Eruygur are accused of leading a terrorist group, trying to topple the government and Parliament, drug trafficking, influencing the judiciary, illegally storing weapons, encouraging subversion within the military, collecting and making public state secrets, illegal collection of information on individuals and tampering with official documents. Both were detained last year but were later released due to health reasons. Tolon retired from the military in 2005 as the commander of the first army while Eruygur retired in 2004 as the commander of the Gendarmerie Forces.

2007 rallies as a stepping stone to coup

The indictment also says the group saw the "Republic rallies" of 2007 before the general elections that year as a stepping stone to facilitate a coup. The rallies were organized by several secularist groups and people with strong secularist affiliations and attracted significant crowds in several cities.

Cumhuriyet daily’s Ankara representative Mustafa Balbay is accused of stealing secret information linked to state security while Tuncay Özkan, a journalist and one of the organizers of the Republic rallies, is accused of attempting to topple Parliament.

Among the other suspects are the wife of Constitutional Court judge Osman Paksüt, Ferda Paksüt, who is accused of knowingly aiding a terrorist group, former police chief Adil Serdar Seçan, who is accused of membership of a terrorist group and publication of state secrets, retired Brig. Gen. Levent Ersöz, accused of trying to topple the government and inciting armed insurrection, and former AKP deputy Turhan Çömez, for trying to topple the government.

The indictment accused the alleged terrorist group of trying to reshape Turkey’s political landscape.

Tuncay Özkan is accused of trying to topple the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Deniz Baykal, who has voiced the most critical objections to the Ergenekon investigation, saying that it was a ploy by the AKP to pressure secularists. The group tried to contact groups within the CHP opposed to Baykal and also tried to listen to the CHP leader’s telephone conversations.

The group is accused of interfering with leadership elections of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, and of efforts to divide it.

The group wanted to extend the term of former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a fierce secularist, and ensure as many AKP members left the party as possible, according to the indictment.

The prosecutor who prepared the indictment said he alleged Ergenekon terrorist group was trying to instigate ethnic conflict between Turks and Kurds. It also had links with several terrorist groups, including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, the prosecutor said.

The Istanbul court will decide whether to combine the two cases and the indictments at a session July 20.

The trial based on the first indictment is currently underway in a court in Istanbul’s Tuzla district. The military has criticized the investigation and denied any links to an alleged plot to conduct bombings and assassinations to instigate a military coup. Some observers see the investigation, which has targeted many government critics, as revenge for a failed 2008 court case to ban the party for anti-secular activities. The AKP rejects this.