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Turkey rocked by arrests
By David Barchard
A wave of arrests of prominent persons allegedly linked to a nationalist conspiracy jolted Turkey on Tuesday, just as the country's constitutional court was about to start hearing a case brought by the chief prosecutor to close down the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) for breaching the country's secularist system.
Police in Ankara, Istanbul and three other cities across Turkey raided homes and offices, making 23 arrests and issuing a search warrant for another. Several of those detained were arrested on the runway of Ankara airport after getting off a plane from Istanbul.
Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur, two retired generals, headed the list of those arrested. Tolon is regarded as an outspoken nationalist. Eruygur is a former gendarmerie commander whose name was linked last month by pro-government media with alleged attempts to set up a secret organization called the "Republic Working Group" inside the armed forces in 2002.
Others, however, came from the professions, business and the media. They included Sinan Aygun, head of the Ankara Chamber of Trade, Ercument Ovali, a leading medical professor, Mustafa Balbay, the Ankara bureau chief of Cumhuriyet, a staunchly Kemalist newspaper. Among premises raided by police were the offices of the "Contemporary Thought Association", an Kemalist organization promoting secularism and previously regarded as a hotbed of middle-class respectability.
All are accused of having links with a shadowy nationalist organization called Ergenekon, said to be plotting against the government.
The arrests were announced during a press conference by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Referring to to the Ergenekon case, the prime minister said, "I wish that this case will now produce a result. There are those who think there is a relationship between it and us [a reference to the AKP.] Those who think that we are making it happen are mistaken," the premier told reporters.
Police raids and arrests of persons said to be linked to Ergenekon began last autumn, but initially involved mainly ultra-nationalists such as Kerim Kerincsiz, an Istanbul lawyer who organized noisy protests against Nobel Prize-winning writer Orhan Pamuk and Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink. A retired brigadier, Veli Kucuk, also being held, is said to be the central figure among the first detainees. To date, no charges have been produced but there have been media suggestions of a plot to assassinate Pamuk.
Since then the range of persons arrested has steadily widened. During January, 39 persons were detained and on March 21, Dogu Perincek, the former Maoist leader of a militant small party and the staff of his newspaper were seized, along with the 83-year old publisher of Cumhuriyet, Ilhan Selcuk, as well as a former rector of Istanbul University. Selcuk's arrest provoked a media uproar in Istanbul and he was fairly quickly released, but most of the other detainees are still being held.
These latest arrests will provoke further questions about what lies behind the authorities' actions.
Aygun, one of Ankara's main business leaders and head of the city's chamber of commerce, one of Turkey's chief main civil society organizations, was reported as saying while being led away that all he was being accused of was of loving Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic who made the country into a secular state.
A prosecutor's blackout is in force on detailed press investigations into Ergenekon and at least one paper was forced to drop an investigation it was carrying out. It is thus difficult for the Turkish public to make any clear assessment. The chief sources of information on Ergenekon are articles in newspapers supporting the AKP government.
In Ankara there was speculation on Tuesday that Erdogan may have disclosed the forthcoming arrests to the commander of the land forces, General Ilker Basbug, at a lunch meeting between the two men last week held at the prime minister's request.
With the constitutional court due to hear the AKP's defense against charges of violating secularism in the next few days, news of the latest detentions alarmed the markets. Shares fell on the Istanbul Stock Exchange to their lowest level since March while the Turkish lira weakened against the US dollar and other currencies.
David Barchard is a British historian and journalist who teaches at Bilkent University in Ankara.
By David Barchard
A wave of arrests of prominent persons allegedly linked to a nationalist conspiracy jolted Turkey on Tuesday, just as the country's constitutional court was about to start hearing a case brought by the chief prosecutor to close down the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) for breaching the country's secularist system.
Police in Ankara, Istanbul and three other cities across Turkey raided homes and offices, making 23 arrests and issuing a search warrant for another. Several of those detained were arrested on the runway of Ankara airport after getting off a plane from Istanbul.
Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur, two retired generals, headed the list of those arrested. Tolon is regarded as an outspoken nationalist. Eruygur is a former gendarmerie commander whose name was linked last month by pro-government media with alleged attempts to set up a secret organization called the "Republic Working Group" inside the armed forces in 2002.
Others, however, came from the professions, business and the media. They included Sinan Aygun, head of the Ankara Chamber of Trade, Ercument Ovali, a leading medical professor, Mustafa Balbay, the Ankara bureau chief of Cumhuriyet, a staunchly Kemalist newspaper. Among premises raided by police were the offices of the "Contemporary Thought Association", an Kemalist organization promoting secularism and previously regarded as a hotbed of middle-class respectability.
All are accused of having links with a shadowy nationalist organization called Ergenekon, said to be plotting against the government.
The arrests were announced during a press conference by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Referring to to the Ergenekon case, the prime minister said, "I wish that this case will now produce a result. There are those who think there is a relationship between it and us [a reference to the AKP.] Those who think that we are making it happen are mistaken," the premier told reporters.
Police raids and arrests of persons said to be linked to Ergenekon began last autumn, but initially involved mainly ultra-nationalists such as Kerim Kerincsiz, an Istanbul lawyer who organized noisy protests against Nobel Prize-winning writer Orhan Pamuk and Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink. A retired brigadier, Veli Kucuk, also being held, is said to be the central figure among the first detainees. To date, no charges have been produced but there have been media suggestions of a plot to assassinate Pamuk.
Since then the range of persons arrested has steadily widened. During January, 39 persons were detained and on March 21, Dogu Perincek, the former Maoist leader of a militant small party and the staff of his newspaper were seized, along with the 83-year old publisher of Cumhuriyet, Ilhan Selcuk, as well as a former rector of Istanbul University. Selcuk's arrest provoked a media uproar in Istanbul and he was fairly quickly released, but most of the other detainees are still being held.
These latest arrests will provoke further questions about what lies behind the authorities' actions.
Aygun, one of Ankara's main business leaders and head of the city's chamber of commerce, one of Turkey's chief main civil society organizations, was reported as saying while being led away that all he was being accused of was of loving Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic who made the country into a secular state.
A prosecutor's blackout is in force on detailed press investigations into Ergenekon and at least one paper was forced to drop an investigation it was carrying out. It is thus difficult for the Turkish public to make any clear assessment. The chief sources of information on Ergenekon are articles in newspapers supporting the AKP government.
In Ankara there was speculation on Tuesday that Erdogan may have disclosed the forthcoming arrests to the commander of the land forces, General Ilker Basbug, at a lunch meeting between the two men last week held at the prime minister's request.
With the constitutional court due to hear the AKP's defense against charges of violating secularism in the next few days, news of the latest detentions alarmed the markets. Shares fell on the Istanbul Stock Exchange to their lowest level since March while the Turkish lira weakened against the US dollar and other currencies.
David Barchard is a British historian and journalist who teaches at Bilkent University in Ankara.
Why did you said that!!?
They are like a sheep are herded !!! 
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