Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Arrests skyrocket in alleged Turkish ultranationalist terrorist ring

The indictment itself, at 2,455 pages, describes an intricate conspiracy involving lawyers, journalists, police, academics, the mafia, hit men and former military members, reports the BBC. The group is linked to the murder of a secular judge in 2006 and a grenade attack on an office of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, which is known for its opposition to the government—but takes a liberal, rather than a far-right bent. Yet at the same time, Ilhan Selçuk, a prominent columnist for the newspaper, is among Ergenekon defendants.

Time magazine wrote about the case, “billed as an historic opportunity for Turkey to rein in renegade security elements that see themselves operating beyond the reach of law—many Turks have long suspected the existence of such a network, popularly referred to as the 'deep state,'” an alleged underground fascist network thought to wield power to preserve the vaguely definable concept of “Turkishness.”

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