+ GMT Select Your Local Time London GMT Johannesburg Lagos Cairo Accra Mogadishu Abuja Cape Town Free Town Addis Ababa Austria Bahrain Bangladesh Australia Sydney Austria Bahrain Bangladesh Belgium Brazil East Brazil West Canada Toronto Canada Pacific China Beijing Cuba Cyprus Denmark Egypt Ethiopia Finland France Germany Ghana Greece Hon Kong Hungary India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kenya Korea (Rep. of) Kuwait Lebanon Liberia Libya Luxemburg Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Mexico City Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Paraguay Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Moscow Russia Vladivostok Saudi Arabia Senegal Sierra Leone Singapore South Africa Spain Sudan Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Trinidad And Tobago Tunisia Turkey United Arab Emirates United Kingdom USA Washington USA San Francisco USA New York USA Hawaii Venezuela Yemen Zaire Kinshasa Zaire Katanga Zambia Zimbabwe STO
[Pacific Sighting] See Makkah Clock
EsinIslam
Web
Site Explore
Exclusive Search
Broadcasters
Helping Shops
Home | Explore | Broadcasters | Media | Donations | About Us | Contact | Fatwa | Our Sheikh
Save
Former General Testifies On Secularist Plots To Assassinate Turkish Islamist Government PM
29 June 2009
A former general responded to prosecutors' questions about a planned assassination of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was unearthed during the ongoing investigation into the alleged attempt of a secretive group called Ergenekon to take over the government by force. Retired Gen. Çevik Bir, who is said to be the architect of the Feb. 28, 1997 unarmed military intervention which resulted in the resignation of a coalition government led by an Islamist party, testified on Thursday to Ergenekon prosecutors. Bir was questioned as a suspect, the prosecution said. Bir, best remembered for the major role he played in the Feb. 28 process, and former head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Nuri Gündes testified to the prosecutor of the Ergenekon investigation on Thursday. The witness is purportedly a member of the Ergenekon-affiliated clandestine gendarmerie group known as JITEM, which hired mostly former members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and waged an illegal and illegitimate fight against separatist terrorism in the Kurdish-dominated Southeast. JITEM is believed to be behind hundreds of missing persons cases and countless unsolved murders in the region. Gen. Bir and Gündes, whose names appear on several documents seized during the probe into Ergenekon, went to a courthouse in the Levent district of Istanbul to give their testimonies to prosecutor Zekeriya Öz. One such document, titled “Announcing Çevik Bir-Erol Özkasnak team's coup attempts serving the interests of the United States,” detailed a coup attempt in 1998 that was prevented by then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Hüseyin Hakki Karadayi. Bir's testimony was reportedly called by the prosecution based on testimony of a witness whose identity is being kept secret in the case. The prosecution said the two men were called to testify as “suspects.” Bir, reports said, faced questions about earlier coup d'etat plans in the military. The two men also were questioned about their relationship with suspects in the Ergenekon case. Feb. 28 process On Feb. 28, 1997, an unarmed military intervention that resulted in the fall of the coalition government led by Necmettin Erbakan of the now-defunct Welfare Party (RP) occurred under the leadership of Gen. Bir. In reference to the coup attempt, which was termed a “soft coup,” Gen. Bir had said on several occasions that they “made a balance check for democracy.” Following his testimony, Gen. Bir, who was accompanied by his lawyer, Mehmet Seven Dinçler, did not answer journalists' questions and said only “good afternoon.” Dinçler said the prosecutors deferred to his client's knowledge.
EsinIslam.Com
Sign In Password