Last week, newspapers reported that the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) was planning to transfer the prosecutors and judges working at the special authority courts, including those working on the trial of the clandestine ultranationalist Ergenekon organisation.

The reports came shortly before the start of the second Ergenekon trial on Monday, 20 July.

"Your time is over"

In the evening of Saturday, 18 July, a crowd of protesters marched from Tünel Square to Galatasaray Square in the central Istanbul district of Beyoğlu to demonstrate against the planned transfers.

Speaking for the protesters, dancer Zeynep Tanbay said in a press briefing at Galatasaray Square:

"On 20 July, soldiers who planned a coup to overthrow an elected government are going to be tried. We are tired of those who pretend not to know about assassination plans, who see the defence of coups as freedom of expression and of elitists looking down on others. Your time is over."

"We are behind this trial"

Feminist and writer Hidayet Şevkatli Tuksal said, "The attempt by the HSYK to take the Ergenekon prosecutors away from their position is a judiciary coup. Let us not allow them to touch the Ergenekon prosecutors. Should they transfer them, let us gather in the streets at 6 pm on that day and show once again that the people are behind this trial and that we will not let go of the trial."

Hayri İnce of the Young Civilians said, "They are trying to get the prosecutors investigating JİTEM (the clandestine gendarmerie intelligence anti-terrorism unit accused of many extrajudicial killings) and the KCK (Koma Civaken Kürdistan, the Kurdistan Societies' Union to lay off the cases. We see that they are trying to cover things up, but quite openly. We are here to raise our voices against this."

A group calling itself "70 Million Steps against Military Coups Coalition", in reference to the population of Turkey, carried pink placards reading "Let the coup leaders be tried", "We want freedom", "Raise your voice against military coups", "HSYK, leave the prosecutors alone" and "Disperse Ergenekon, try the coup leaders".

Call for resignations

From Tünel Square to Galatasaray Square, the protesters had shouted slogans and whistled, demanding the resignation of Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ, Constitutional Court Vice President Osman Paksüt , whose wife Ferda Paksüt is one of the defendants in the second Ergenekon trial, and HSYK member Ali Suat Ertosun, who suggested the transfers.

After the crowd gathered in Galatasaray Square, the police prevented them from marching further to Taksim Square. (EK/AG)