Kamil Pasha

A correspondent working for the Taraf daily was taken into custody yesterday afternoon in Ankara. Veteran legal correspondent Soner Arikanoglu had written recent exclusive reports in Taraf under his byline concerning an ongoing probe into an illegal neo-nationalist gang known as Ergenekon that was allegedly paving the way for a military coup against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government. There is a ban on such reports on the ongoing Ergenekon investigation.

Arikanoglu wrote that a CD discovered in the headquarters of the Worker’s Party (IP) — whose leader Dogu Perincek was recently jailed for alleged Ergenekon links — revealed the gang’s plans to attack the Supreme Court of Appeals. In an article on Tuesday, Arikanoglu wrote that police had also found documents in the IP office that listed the members of the Supreme Court of Appeals in the following categories: Kurds, those from Tunceli, supporters of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and followers of the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. (For the full article, click here)

So far, total of 44 people have been arrested in the Ergenekon operation, which was launched after police found a house full of ammunition in Istanbul last June and discovered the existence of a gang that called itself Ergenenkon. This neo-nationalist gang is suspected of having ties to individuals and groups within the state bureaucracy and the military. Some of the people arrested have been prosecutors and retired high-level military personnel. The gang’s aim, according to reports by Arikanli and others, was to create a chaotic atmosphere in Turkey in which people would welcome a military coup against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Tags: Deep state/Ergenekon, Politics, Rights //