Indictment claims PKK-Ergenekon link

Fatih Yağmur ISTANBUL / Radikal

Lawyer İrfan Dündar used to represent jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. AA photo

An Istanbul court hearing the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) trial accepted yesterday the case’s second indictment, which includes testimony on the purported ties between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the alleged Ergenekon gang.

Sabri Ok, a prominent member of the European wing of the PKK, represents the principal connection between the organization and the Ergenekon gang, according to lawyer İrfan Dündar, who used to represent Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK’s jailed leader.

“A close friend of Sabri Ok’s told me that Ok was in constant contact with a major called Zeki or Zekeriya from the gendarmerie intelligence while he was performing his military duty. [He also told me] that they exchanged ideas and that Ok was protected by two soldiers,” Dündar said in the indictment.

Connections

Dündar said he remembered Ok had risen rapidly through the PKK’s ranks after completing his military service. He was then put in charge of the PKK’s European affairs and remained under Öcalan’s personal aegis within the organization, according to the testimony.

“I remember he once said to me: ‘Öcalan is my representative in Turkey.’

As such, I am of the opinion that Ok is connected to the Ergenekon structure,” said Dündar.

Fifty suspects, 35 of them arrested pending trial, are currently facing charges in the 890-page indictment which the court unanimously accepted yesterday. Lawyer Mehmet Nuri Deniz was implicated as the chief suspect in the indictment.

An official “investigation commission” was established following Öcalan’s capture in 1999, Dündar also said.