The Ergenkon indictment contains blacklists of hundreds of people compiled by the state’s intelligence agencies that were found in the family home of Fikret Emek.

914 people listed by gang - 07 / 08 / 2008 08:18

The Ergenkon indictment contains blacklists of hundreds of people compiled by the state’s intelligence agencies that were found in the family home of Fikret Emek, a suspect of the Ergenekon gang, which allegedly carried out tens of murders and assassinations for its ultimate aim of overthrowing the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.

The investigation into Ergenekon, a shady network of political and ordinary crime with links to various branches of the state apparatus, began in the summer of 2007, when the police discovered a house in Istanbul being used as an arms depot.

As the investigation expanded, another house belonging to Emek’s mother in the Central Anatolian city of Eskisehir was discovered to have held a large number of explosives, weapons and ammunition.

During the raid on the home, the police found lists of people compiled by various intelligence agencies that categorized people according to their political affiliations.

Many such lists were put together by intelligence departments of the military during the years 1999 and 2000 in the Feb. 28 process, which started in 1998 when the military overthrew the government in a non-armed intervention.

Page after page, the documents stamped "confidential" are ordered on the basis of streets and districts of İstanbul, listing hundreds of residents as being members or supporters of armed terrorist groups such as the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHPK-C), the Turkish Workers' and Peasants' Liberation Army (TİKKO) and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) as well as labeling them "extreme left," "religious fundamentalist" or names of religious orders such as Nurcu, Suleymanci or Naksibendi.

The lists are organized in charts. Hundreds of people are included, from store owners to barbers, owners of karate training centers, bars, coffeehouses and retail chains and tens of institutions such as student associations, cultural groups and civil society organizations, as well as the name of a mayor from the Republican People's Party (CHP).

However, it was not clear which security service compiled the lists.

914 people blacklisted

Ten pages of lists are available among the documents found during the searches in Emek's homes.

For example, the words DHKP/C and TIKKO are put next to the name of a completely legal and legitimate association in Istanbul's Avcilar district, while the tags MLKP and DHKP/C are given to another similar organization in the same district.

On the first list, which ends with the Zeytinburnu district, there are records of 366 individuals and institutions.

There are two other lists, but the district names on these are not ordered alphabetically.

In addition to alleged supporters or members of the extreme left or PKK supporters, these lists include people who are allegedly part of organizations based on religious affiliation.

In a list titled "Addendum C, Individuals and organizations with links to illegal organizations, sects and religious orders," 265 individuals are blacklisted.

In Addendum Ç, 283 more individuals and organizations are blacklisted.

The total number of people and organizations on these lists is 914.

The compilers of the list -- who even put in minor details such as "the wife of a teacher" about the people whom they blacklisted -- however, seemed to be oblivious to some of the political realities in Turkey.

In fact, there is blatant ignorance about some of Turkey's very well-known civil society organizations.

For example, the Mujdat Gezen Culture Center, the former student movement activists' association the '68ers Foundation, a foundation named after socialist movie director Yılmaz Guney and an arts foundation named after the socialist poet Nazim Hikmet are labeled as being "extreme left."

The Human Rights Association (IHD) is qualified as being part of the DHKP/C and PKK.

The Contemporary Attorneys Foundation is marked as DHKP-C on the list.

Where there was confusion, the intelligence officers who compiled the lists and then delivered them to Ergenekon chose to write down all the possibilities.

For example, the Barikat journal is associated with both the left-wing DEV-YOL and DHKP/C. In reality however, Barikat had no relation to either of the two groups.

The indictment, which was made public last month, indicates that the Ergenekon network was behind a series of political assassinations over the past two decades.

The group is also suspected of being behind the murder of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist slain by a teenager in 2007.

A total of 86 suspects, 47 of whom are currently under arrest, are accused of having suspicious links with the gang.

Suspects will start appearing before the court as of Oct. 20 and will face accusations that include "membership in an armed terrorist group," "attempting to destroy the government," "inciting people to rebel against the Republic of Turkey" and other similar crimes.

Today's Zaman