Turkish Airlines official killed in Somalia was suspect in Ergenekon trial

ISTANBUL/ANKARA

Doğan, who was the chief of a security company servicing Turkish Airlines, was killed in a drive-by shooting on May 27.

While the perpetrators and motives for the attack in which a Turkish Airlines (THY) security chief was killed in Mogadishu remain unclear, detailed information about the life of Saadettin Doğan has been revealed.

Doğan was reportedly one of the suspects in the Poyrazköy coup plot case, as he was being charged with “being member of the Ergenekon armed terrorist organization” and was facing a prison sentence of from 7.5 to 15 years.

He had been charged without arrest and had no lawyer representing him in the case, Doğan News Agency reported. The next hearing in the case was scheduled for Sept. 18.

Doğan was also among the Turkish commandos who took part in the military operation on the Kardak (Imia) islets in 1996.

Doğan, who was the chief of a security company servicing THY, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Mogadishu on May 27, when a company car was attacked by unknown people. He was immediately taken to hospital, but could not be saved.

His funeral is set to be held on May 29 in the Thracian province of Tekirdağ. 

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, Turkish Ambassador Kani Torun told daily Hürriyet, adding that the possibility of the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab being behind the assault could not be ignored.

Somali officials did not give any specific information during a meeting regarding the attack, Torun added.

“Al-Shabaab immediately takes responsibility when it launches an attack. Last July, they claimed responsibility for the attack on the embassy. There was no information delivered to the Somali government that the attack was conducted by al-Shabaab. However we cannot ignore the possibility,” he said.

“There were four people in the car during the attack, but Mr. Saadettin was directly targeted. The others were not targeted by guns,” the ambassador said, adding that they had begun investigating whether there were any conflicts between Doğan and ethnic groups in the region.

In 2013, al-Shabaab claimed a suicide car bomb attack on a Turkish embassy annex in Mogadishu, killing a Turkish guard and a Somali bystander. In 2011, Ankara launched a major diplomatic, economic and humanitarian push in the war-torn country, becoming one of only a handful of countries daring to open an embassy in Mogadishu.

The embassy was opened following a visit in August by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, only the second major leader to visit post-civil war Mogadishu, just a few months after Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni.        

Direct flights between Somalia and Turkey started in March 2012, and THY is the only major international airline flying to Somalia.

Turkey has helped build hospitals and renovate other buildings in the capital.