Akin Birdal, human rights activist and Diyarbakir MP for the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), has termed the Ergenekon investigation a “great opportunity” for the solution of the Kurdish Question, provided, he argued, that the roots of the Ergenekon organisation in the clandestine Susurluk network of the 1990s were investigated.

Tenth wave of detentions last week

In a tenth wave of detentions in the Ergenekon investigation last week, retired generals and the former head of Police Special Operations, İbrahim Şahin, had been detained. Based on maps found in Şahin’s house, the police found a weapon arsenal buried in Ankara, Turkey’s capital.

Several detainees released at weekend

At the weekend, several of those detained were released, including Kemal Gürüz, the former head of the Higher Education Board (YÖK) and retired General Tuncer Kılınç, who is the former Secretary-General of the National Security Council (MGK).

Human rights violations against Kurds need to be investigated

According to MP Birdal, the arrest of İbrahim Şahin and other high-ranking former soldiers offers the opportunity to shed light on many human rights violations and extrajudiciary killings. He mentioned the events of Newroz in 1992 and the bombing of a bookshop in Şemdinli, Hakkari in 2005, an event in which gendarmerie officers were involved.

Birdal announced a press briefing for 14 January; the party would demand the trial of the Ergenekon coup planners, the investigation of rights violations towards the Kurdish people in the context of Ergenekon, as well as the trial of those in the military and civil bureaucracy responsible for such violations. He spoke about the assassination of Kurdish intellectuals, journalists and politicians.

Preparations to become third-party plaintiffs

Birdal expressed his hope for a solution to the Kurdish issue if there was enough political will to get to the bottom of the Ergenekon network. He further announced that he himself, as well as several other Kurdish citizens were planning to reapply as third-party plaintiffs in the Ergenekon trial. They had been rejected in October 2008.

Referring to the Gladio paramilitary organisation in Italy, Birdal claimed that Turkey was the only NATO member not to have dealt with its own clandestine organisation. According to Birdal, the state fed this organisation with its constant need to create enemies.

Birdal added that an in-depth investigation and trial of Ergenekon would have to be followed by the creation of a new, democratic and civil constitution.

When Akin Birdal himself was president of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), he was shot and severely wounded by a Semih Tufan Gülaltay in May 1998. Gülaltay was said to have acted for the Turkish Revenge Brigade (TİT) and was arrested as part of the Ergenekon operations. (EÖ/AG)