[BRIEF NOTE] Ergenekon
Jul. 24th, 2008 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldFrom Wikipedia:
From Today's Zaman:
A Swiss historian suggests that Ergenekom is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, by which the United States and other countries organized "stay-behind" militias charged with waging partisan warfare against Soviet occupiers in the case of a Third World War, all lacking any public accountability. Many of these organizations later transferred their loyalties to far-right terrorist networks, most famously in Italy becoming involved in a series of terrorist bombings, banking scandals and the Propaganda Due scandal in which hundreds of prominent Italians--including Berlusconi--were alleged to be members of a pseudo-Masonic organization intent on remaking Italy as an authoritarian right-wing state. In other European countries, the Gladio-reated organizations were allegedly destroyed, but in Turkey, where an undemocratic and approximately right-wing network constituted the deep state, it arguably survived intact.
Um. Did I get everything down correctly? And is it possible that this exceptionally convoluted theory might actually be partially accurate? People?
The "Ergenekon network" or "Ergenekon" (Turkish: Ergenekon or Ergenekon terör örgütü) is an alleged clandestine Gladio-type ultra-nationalist terrorist organization within Turkey, plotting to foment unrest in Turkey, inter alia by assassinating intellectuals, including Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, with the ultimate goal of toppling the present government.
From Today's Zaman:
Revelations emanating from the investigation thus far have shown that many of the attacks attributed to separatist or Islamist groups or seen as hate crimes against minorities were actually "inside jobs."
The investigation into the gang, 33 of whose members were taken into police custody earlier this week as part of an investigation into an arms depot found in İstanbul in June of last year, has exposed solid links between an attack on the Council of State in 2006, threats and attacks against people accused of being unpatriotic and a 1996 car crash known as the Susurluk incident, which revealed links between a police chief, a convicted ultranationalist fugitive and a member of Parliament as well as links to plans of some groups in Turkey's powerful military to overthrow the government.
Meanwhile, 15 of the suspects detained on Tuesday on charges of membership in the Ergenekon terrorist organization were taken to a courthouse in İstanbul's Beşiktaş district under tight security on Friday, while one of them, retired Maj. Zekeriya Öztürk, was arrested. Three of the suspects were released on Thursday by the prosecutor after their interrogation was complete, while the court released one of the suspects.
The gang is a part of a structure named Ergenekon, declared a terrorist organization by the İstanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office, an aggregation of many groups of varying sizes, many of which have in their names adjectives such as "patriotic," "national," "nationalist," "Kemalist" or "Atatürkist." Ergenekon is the name of a legend that describes how Turks came into existence.
A number of those detained in the recent raids, including Veli Küçük, Sami Hoştan, Drej Ali and Muzaffer Tekin -- who was already in jail prior to Tuesday's detentions-- have repeatedly been named in many similar investigations.
The investigation has found that the Ergenekon phenomenon, also referred to as Turkey's "deep state," stages attacks using "behind-the-scenes" paramilitary organizations to manipulate public opinion according its own political agenda.
A Swiss historian suggests that Ergenekom is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, by which the United States and other countries organized "stay-behind" militias charged with waging partisan warfare against Soviet occupiers in the case of a Third World War, all lacking any public accountability. Many of these organizations later transferred their loyalties to far-right terrorist networks, most famously in Italy becoming involved in a series of terrorist bombings, banking scandals and the Propaganda Due scandal in which hundreds of prominent Italians--including Berlusconi--were alleged to be members of a pseudo-Masonic organization intent on remaking Italy as an authoritarian right-wing state. In other European countries, the Gladio-reated organizations were allegedly destroyed, but in Turkey, where an undemocratic and approximately right-wing network constituted the deep state, it arguably survived intact.
Um. Did I get everything down correctly? And is it possible that this exceptionally convoluted theory might actually be partially accurate? People?
