Ergenekon process

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The scene of the trial was the maximum security prison in Silivri

The Ergenekon trial was a six -and- a-half-year mammoth trial (early 2007 to mid-2013) in Turkey in which hundreds of (ex) military officers, lawyers, business people, politicians and journalists were arrested as alleged members of an alleged group of conspirators and were arrested on August 5, 2013 Were sentenced to prison terms. This nationalist underground organization called Ergenekon is said to be an important part of the so-called " deep state " and supposedly overthrew the Islamic government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from 2003 onwards through terror and disinformation . Due to the scope of the investigation, in which even the former chief of staff was arrested, the press dubbed it a "Trial of the Century", the course of which occupied the Turkish public and media for almost a decade.

On April 21, 2016, the judgment was by Yargitay , the top Turkish court, due fabricated, and lack of illegally procured evidence collected . The trial is viewed together with many other parallel trials (e.g. Balyoz trial , Oda-TV trial) as a show trial to combat mostly secular personalities and the expansion of power. The acquitted defendants accuse both the Gülen movement and then Prime Minister Erdoğan of being masterminds of the proceedings. On June 21, 2017, the process should be reopened.

designation

The name comes from the Ergenekon legend .

Charges

The retired chief of staff of the Turkish army İlker Başbuğ was arrested in January 2012 and charged with membership, sentenced to life imprisonment and released from prison in 2014

The existence of an organization called Ergenekon was postulated before the Ergenekon trial in the context of various conspiracy theories. The prosecutors took up these theses and claimed that the defendants were members of an organization called Ergenekon and were alleged to have planned the overthrow of the Islamic-conservative government under Prime Minister Erdoğan . They are active elements of the complex that has been known as the “ deep state ” since the late 1990s . The civil defendants (journalists, activists) were included in this titled conspiracy through an alleged restructuring of the organization through the establishment of "civil departments".

In the course of the nine-year trial, there were several waves of arrests with a total of five indictments.

The first wave of arrests began in mid-2007. One year later, serious allegations were made against the 86 defendants in the 2,455-page first indictment:

The allegations of the second indictment (March 2009) go back further, partly with reference to the still disputed anti-terrorist unit of the gendarmerie JITEM . Retired generals are said to have worked out a four-phase coup plan. In order to achieve her goal of causing unrest, Ergenekon had relationships with terrorist organizations such as the PKK or MLKP , DHKP-C and Hezbollah .

In the third indictment (August 2009) it was omitted to describe how this large secret organization is supposed to function. Instead, new allegations were made. Among other things, the defendants were charged

  • targeting Christian minorities in Turkey in order to weaken the AKP government (Kafes plan).
  • To have planned attacks on NATO facilities
  • To be responsible for the arson attack on the Alevis in Sivas in 1993

The fourth indictment ("Poyrazköy Trial", January 2010) charged 17 defendants (mostly from the Turkish Navy ) with aiding and abetting and membership.

In the fifth indictment (Erzurum Trial, March 2010), defendants were accused of membership

  • Hiding weapons and illegals in the houses of the Fethullah Gülen movement in order to discredit this organization as a "terrorist organization"
  • To have been involved in the international drug trade

Investigations

The investigation into the "Ergenekon" case has been officially running since June 2007. The trigger was the discovery of hand grenades , TNT rods and fuses during a house search in Istanbul's Ümraniye district , which were assigned to members of a nationalist group. A significant part of the indictments is based on testimony. In addition to a testimony by Tuncay Güney, which was made in 2001 and particularly incriminated the retired General Veli Küçük , numerous “secret witnesses” were used.

In spring 2007, the now discontinued news magazine “Nokta” published excerpts from the diaries of the retired Admiral Örnek. They were about two coups that he and others claim to have planned in 2004. In the case of the retired General Şener Eruygur, the police came across the plan of a third coup. Eruygur was the commandant of the gendarmerie from 2002 to 2004 . When the retired general became chairman of the " Ataturkçü Düşünce Derneği " Association of Thoughts in the spring , demonstrations against the government were organized.

It was reported several times in German-language media. In March 2011, the number of suspects in the investigation had risen to 273, including 116 officers. Over time, criticism of the investigation grew louder. Instead of convincing evidence, public prosecutor Zekeriya Öz , who was deposed in spring 2011, has only presented more and more suspects.

In July 2011, prosecutor Cihan brought charges before the 13th Grand Chamber for Serious Crimes in Istanbul. Kansız requested the merger of the Internet Memorandum and Action Plan to Combat Response . 14 officers on active duty, four retired officers and one civil servant are charged. You are charged under Article 312 of the Turkish Criminal Code of attempting to overthrow the government. The offense can be punished with the maximum sentence of life imprisonment .

In January 2012, the former chief of staff and commander of the Turkish army , İlker Başbuğ , who has been in retirement since August 30, 2010, was arrested on suspicion of establishing and running Ergenekon and imprisoned in Silivri prison. Başbuğ denied the allegations.

Processes

On July 14, 2008, the 13th Grand Chamber for Serious Crimes in Istanbul was charged with an indictment against 86 people (48 of them in custody ). In addition to allegations of attempted overthrow, the accused were also charged with membership or support for an armed organization, possession of explosives , possession of secret documents, incitement to military disobedience and public incitement to hatred and hostility of the people . The investigations into 36 suspects have been closed.

On October 20, 2008, the trial of 86 accused allegedly belonging to the organization began. The indictment of 2,455 pages is based on documents in 441 files. For the first time, high-ranking members of the security services and the army are standing before a civil court in the proceedings.

On March 8, 2009, the second indictment with 1,909 pages, in which the persons are accused, who from the 6-8. Wave of arrests were submitted to the 13th Grand Chamber for Serious Crimes in Istanbul. 56 suspects were affected, 21 of whom were in custody. The start of the proceedings was set for July 20, 2009. By that date, the third indictment had also been drawn up. Therefore, the court decided to combine the second indictment with the third indictment on 52 suspects (37 in custody).

At the renewed meeting of the 13th Grand Chamber for Serious Crimes in Istanbul on August 4, 2009, both indictments were accepted, the proceedings were combined and the start of the negotiations was set for September 7, 2009. On February 14, 2011, the 100th hearing took place in the second trial. There were 117 accused at the time, 29 of whom were in pre-trial detention. The state radio and television company TRT made the following information in March 2011:

  • So far 176 negotiations in the 1st procedure. After being merged with the attack on the State Council, the number of accused has increased to 96.
  • So far 107 court hearings in the 2nd trial.
  • Investigations under the names "Cage Action Plan" (tr: Kafes Eylem Planı ), "Assassination attempt on admirals" (tr: Amirallare Suikast ) and "Poyrazköy" (village in the Beykoz district of Istanbul) were merged as Poyrazköy proceedings. There are 69 defendants, seven of whom are in custody.
  • An indictment in the context of the Ergenekon investigation bears the designation Plan for Intervention in Democracy (tr: Demokrasiye Müdahale Planı ).
  • For the Association for the Support of a Contemporary Life (tr: Çağdaş Yaşamı Destekleme Derneği ÇYDD) and the Foundation for Contemporary Life (tr: Çağdaş Eğitim Vakfı ÇEV), the proceedings will begin on March 18, 2011 with eight accused board members.
  • The findings of the excavations in Şile on July 28, 2008, deal with a case in which four people are charged, two of them in custody.
  • Then there will be a procedure in connection with the searches at OdaTV. So far, three people have been detained here.

14 people were tried on the charge of having implemented a plan to fight the reaction (tr: irtica , also meaning fundamentalism) as a member of the armed organization Ergenekon in Erzincan . The first hearing before the 2nd Grand Chamber for Serious Crimes in Erzurum set May 4, 2001 as the first hearing day. The defendants include General Saldıray Berk and Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner. Ten defendants were in custody.

Criticism of the investigation

Right at the beginning of the proceedings, the long-time chairman of the human rights association , Hüsnü Öndül , called for a fair trial . He criticized the fact that many of the prosecution's conclusions are based on tapped phone calls without it being clear whether this evidence was “obtained” by legal means. University deans, opposition politicians, bar associations and Turkish daily newspapers criticize the harsh actions taken against alleged members of this organization. They accuse the AKP government of including innocent advocates of a liberal, secular state in the investigation in order to intimidate them. The critics also call for an acceleration of the investigation, which has been going on for months and, in their opinion, is being politically abused. Some critics even speak of a deep state of the AKP and see the investigation as an act of revenge by the AKP for the failed AKP ban proceedings.

The ever new waves of arrests, which in large parts affected highly respected personalities such as Ahmet Şık or Nedim Şener , who are critical of the AKP and who were punished with months and years in prison without charge, have increasingly discredited this procedure. There have long been doubts as to whether the Ergenekon investigation has long been an instrument used by those in power to intimidate their opponents. The only common point the defendants have in common is that they are critical of either the government, a religious organization or the Ergenekon trial. People such as the Chief Public Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner, who was the first to investigate human rights violations by the military in connection with the fight against the PKK, are charged.

Gareth Jenkins, writer and political analyst, pointed to numerous inconsistencies and absurdities in the indictment. There are also inconsistencies in the hammer (Balyoz) method. The journalist Yiğit Bulut sees the difference between the two proceedings in the fact that other prosecutors are investigating and that of the more than 200 defendants at Balyoz are only members of the military. Daniel Pipes of the National Review Online believes that the Balyoz case could only come about because the military was too passive against the Ergenekon investigation launched by the AKP. For some time now, close relatives of officers and NCOs among the defendants at Ergenekon and Balyoz have united on a platform that they have called “We take on the shift” ( Vardiye Bizde Platformu ). You have set yourself the task of uncovering manipulated evidence.

Law enforcement reporting

On February 4, 2010, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin announced that in one year since the start of the Ergenekon proceedings (October 20, 2008) there had been 4,139 investigations, mainly against journalists, most of whom were under Article 285 of the Criminal Code (influence the judiciary). Proceedings have been opened in 1265 cases, of which 17 have so far ended with a conviction, 122 with an acquittal and 317 with suspension or decisions on non-jurisdiction. In the European Commission's progress report on the enlargement of the European Union of 9 November 2010, the Commission expresses its concern about the large number of proceedings against journalists who report on the Ergenekon proceedings.

A case has been opened against the news coordinator of the daily newspaper Radikal Ertuğrul Mavioğlu and the journalist Ahmet Şık for violating the obligation of secrecy in the book Forty Mules, Forty Lines (tr: Kırk Katır, Kırk Satır ). With regard to two other books on Ergenekon, a hearing took place before the 2nd criminal court in Kadıköy (Istanbul) on October 8, 2010 and was postponed to January 21, 2011. Another hearing took place on April 14, 2011. Ahmet Şık was not brought to trial, allegedly because no vehicle was available to transport him from Silivri prison . The hearing was adjourned to May 13, 2011. At the end of this hearing, the court ruled on acquittal because the offense had not been fulfilled.

Another Radikal reporter, İsmail Saymaz, was charged with insulting, influencing a fair trial and violating the secrecy of an investigation over an article dated June 8, 2010 entitled Ergenekon Ergenekon (tr: Ergenekon'da Aşk Oyunu ). The trial was scheduled to begin on January 28, 2011 in the Bakırköy Second Criminal Court. That day the court heard the defendant and adjourned to April 14, 2011.

The newspaper Akşam charged the editor-in-chief Mustafa Dolu and the former editor Semra Pelek for having printed a statement in the newspaper on January 5, 2010 by the retired general İbrahim Fırtına, who was accused in the Ergenekon trial. The hearing before the 2nd Criminal Court Bakırköy (İstanbul) on November 1, 2010 was postponed to March 29, 2011. This hearing was adjourned to August 11, 2011.

The reporter Burhan Ekinci of the daily newspaper Taraf has to answer before the 2nd criminal court in Kadıköy , because he wrote a report from the Istanbul Police Headquarters dated November 13, 2009 on the connection of defendants in the trial of the murders in the Christian publishing house Zirve (Malatya) and the Ergenekon -Procedure published. The November 11, 2010 hearing was adjourned pending notification from the 3rd Grand Criminal Chamber in Malatya as to whether the document had been declassified.

On December 7, 2011, proceedings against Nedim Şener before the 2nd criminal court in Bakırköy ended with acquittal . He was accused of breaching the confidentiality obligation of an ongoing investigation in an article in Milliyet dated February 9, 2009 entitled "Interesting Police Scheme". In the schemes, a link had been made between defendants in the Ergenekon trial and the murder of Hrant Dink . The court took the view that the legal elements of the crime were not met.

Judgments

On August 5, 2013, the court under Judge Hasan Hüseyin Özese in the Silivri prison complex sentenced 19 defendants, including former chief of staff İlker Başbuğ and journalist Tuncay Özkan , to life imprisonment; other defendants, including journalists, opposition MPs, a former police chief and a former head of the Turkish higher education authority, were sentenced to long prison terms. The court found it proven that the defendants had planned a coup against the Islamic conservative government of Erdoğan and carried out attacks to create chaos and to justify the coup. A former colonel was sentenced to 47 years in prison on August 5, 2013. Other former military officials received sentences of up to 20 years.

21 of the 275 defendants - including senior military officials, journalists and academics - have been acquitted.

While the verdict was being announced, the airspace over Silivri was cordoned off and the police used tear gas to break up protests near the courthouse.

A spokeswoman for the US State Department did not want to comment on the outcome of the process, but expressed her understanding of the concerns of Turkish citizens about the lack of transparency in the process of litigation. The EU Commission did not want to comment on individual cases, but expressed concern about the rights of the defense, the times of pre-trial detention and the broad indictments.

Annulment of the judgments

On April 21, 2016, the Supreme Court overturned the entire process and the 275 convictions, on the grounds that the existence of the alleged Ergenekon conspiracy, which wanted to overthrow the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had not been proven during the trial and that Law of defense was not respected.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Ergenekon indictments  - sources and full texts (Turkish)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Gottschlich in Spiegel Online from April 5, 2001 ; Retrieved April 8, 2011
  2. ↑ Ergenekon davasında karar. In: NTV. April 21, 2016. Retrieved August 21, 2016 .
  3. ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Ergenekon process in Turkey: Erdogan accounts - SPIEGEL ONLINE - politics. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Ergenekon davalarında birleştirme kararı . ( com.tr [accessed May 30, 2017]).
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Stefan Hibbeler in Istanbul Post of March 27, 2009 ; Retrieved April 8, 2001
  6. ↑ a b c Turkey - Guide to Ergenekon. OpenSourceCenter, March 19, 2010, accessed September 11, 2016 .
  7. ↑ a b c Quoted from the 2008 annual report of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, TIHV (Turkish) to be found on the TIHV pages as a PDF file and as individual pages of the Turkish Democratic Forum , DTF with the chapter on Ergenekon ; all sources accessed April 8, 2011
  8. ^ A b Gareth Jenkins: Between Fact and Fantasy: Turkey's Ergenekon Investigation Silk Road Paper , Washington DC & Stockholm, August 2008
  9. ↑ January Senkyr, author of the report of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation on 24 July 2008; Retrieved April 8, 2011
  10. ↑ a b Rainer Hermann in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung | FAZ from August 14, 2008 ; Retrieved April 8, 2011
  11. ↑ See: Jürgen Gottschlich in Spiegel Online from July 3, 2008 ; accessed on April 8, 2001 or Michael Martens in FAZ on March 7, 2011 , accessed on April 8, 2001
  12. ^ According to the Turkish Democratic Forum (DTF) based on a report by Human Rights Watch; accessed on April 5, 2011
  13. ↑ a b Jan Keetman in diepresse.com of March 8, 2001 ; Retrieved April 8, 2001
  14. ↑ Bianet communication network from July 22, 2011 ; Accessed July 25, 2001
  15. ^ Public prosecutor's office raises coup allegations: Turkish authorities arrest former army chief ( Memento from January 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Tagesschau.de, January 6, 2012. Accessed on January 29, 2012
  16. ↑ Turkey has ex-chief of staff arrested Spiegel Online, January 6, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2012
  17. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : Trial of "Ergenekon" conspirators begins on October 20, 2008.
  18. ↑ a b c Quoted from the 2009 annual report of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, TIHV (Turkish) to be found on the TIHV website as a PDF file; Retrieved April 8, 2011
  19. ↑ samanyoluhaber.com of February 14, 2011
  20. ^ TRT of March 3, 2011
  21. ↑ a b Hürriyet of March 4, 2011
  22. ↑ Helmut Oberdiek in the Amnesty Journal from October 2008 ; Retrieved April 8, 2011
  23. ↑ Turkish daily Milliyet : Ergenekon soruşturması ucu açık devam etmesin ; The Chairman of the Istanbul Bar Association on the Ergenekon Case, Esra Alus, (Turkish)
  24. ↑ Turkish daily newspaper Hürriyet : Information on the arrest in connection with Ergenekon , March 22, 2008 (Turkish)
  25. ↑ Turkish daily Akşam : Information on the arrest in connection with Ergenekon , p. 10, March 22, 2008 (Turkish)
  26. ↑ Ulrike Dufner in a The Recent Arrests in the Context of the Ergenekon Trial , article by the Heinrich Böll Foundation of March 21, 2001
  27. ↑ Michael Martens in Alle sind Ergenekon , FAZ from March 7, 2011, accessed on April 8, 2001
  28. ↑ a b Listed in the protocol of the event on the subject http://www.boell-tr.org/web/50-1193.html ( Memento from April 14, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) of the Heinrich-Böll Foundation in May 2011 ; Accessed August 19, 2011
  29. ↑ Quoted from Crisis in Turkey , Middle East Forum, March 2, 2010; Accessed August 19, 2011
  30. ↑ From the initiative's website to About Us ( Memento of December 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Turkish); Accessed August 19, 2011
  31. ↑ a b See the 2010 monthly report from the Turkish Democratic Forum
  32. ↑ Progress report on Turkey (PDF; 570 kB); Accessed May 14, 2011. The footnote reads: "4,091 investigations have been initiated against journalists for breaches of the confidentiality of investigations or attempts to influence a fair trial (Articles 285 and 288 of the Turkish Criminal Code), following their reporting on the Ergenekon case. "
  33. ↑ Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV) daily report of June 24, 2010
  34. ↑ Judith Chomsky'den Şık ve Destek Mavioğlu'na , Bianet of 8 October 2010 (in Turkish)
  35. ↑ Şık 'araç yok' denilerek duruşmaya getirilmedi daily newspaper Radikal of April 14, 2011; Accessed April 15, 2011
  36. ↑ Şık ve Mavioğlu'na advised! , Radikal dated May 13, 2011; Accessed May 14, 2011
  37. ↑ Gazeteci Saymaz'a Sekizinci Dava, 70 Yıl Hapis İstemi , Bianet from September 8, 2010 (Turkish)
  38. ↑ TIHV daily report of February 4, 2011 (Turkish)
  39. ^ Message in Bianet of March 31, 2011
  40. ↑ See the section Assassinations against Christians on the Religions in Turkey page
  41. ↑ TIHV reports from 13. – 22. November 2010
  42. ↑ This article could still be found in the newspaper's archive in December 2011 .
  43. ↑ See a report in the daily newspaper Radikal from December 7, 2011 ; Accessed December 8, 2011
  44. ^ Ergenekon trial: verdicts against alleged putschists drive nationalists on to barricades, Tagesspiegel, August 5, 2013
  45. ↑ FAZ: Long prison sentences in the Ergenekon trial
  46. ↑ Police forces resort to teargas to disperse Silivri crowds ahead of verdict in Turkey's major coup trial , Hurriyet Daily News, August 5, 2013.
  47. ↑ US, EU avoid commenting on Ergenekon verdicts, concerned for judicial process Hurriyet Daily News, August 6, 2013 (Engl.)
  48. ↑ Supreme Court of Appeal in Turkey receives judgments in Ergenekon trial. Retrieved on July 29, 2019 (German).