Prosecutors said the 86 defendants of the Ergenekon group, who also had "death lists" of Christians with missionary backgrounds, allegedly planned violent acts designed to provoke a military coup and unseat the Justice and Development party-led government by next year.
Judges presiding over the trial in Silivri, near Instanbul, adjourned the hearing Monday, October 20, for several hours, after lawyers complained the crowded conditions hampered their work. Once the trial resumed, it was adjourned until Thursday, October 23, officials said.
Ergenekon has been linked to the killing of Turkish Christians, Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel, and a German, Tilmann Geske, who were tortured and killed at a publishing house in the southeastern city of Malatya in April, 2007.
MAIN SUSPECT
Last week the main suspect, Emre Gunaydin, reportedly told a Malatya court that he was promised "state immunity" for the planned attacks, apparently because Ergenekon had links to the influential Turkish army, known for its opposition to religious influence. He has been held with four other suspects, all between 19 and 21 years old, for the past 18 months, trial observers said.
An influential local journalist Varol Bulent Aral, who allegedly incited Gunaydin and his fellow defendants to carry out the attacks, was reportedly detained this month with false identity papers.
Ergenekon has also been linked to murders, or planned assasinations, of other Christians, including the killing of Catholic priest Andrea Santoro in the Black Sea port town of Trabzon in February 2006. In addition, the group is also charged with the bombing of a newspaper and plotting to kill public figures, such as Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish novelist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006.
ORGANIZATION INVESTIGATION
An investigation into the organization was opened in June 2007 after grenades were found in a house in Istanbul. Its scope has broadened to take in several military officials who were expected to be tried later, including two senior generals, a former first army commander and the former head of the paramilitary gendarmerie.
The case has added to concerns over a perceived lack of religious freedom in this predominantly Muslim nation, analysts said.
"Opposition to religious freedom is widespread among the "deep state" and wider sections of political life and the general public," said Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office of Missio, a German-based Catholic charity, with close knowledge about the situation. "This hostility has resulted in deaths and violent attacks, and has not been effectively addressed by the government."
He also reported difficulties for Protestant Christians to receive permission for places of worship, pressure on Catholics to give up properties and cases of vandalism at ancient Christian cemeteries.
Turkey has come under international pressure to improve religious rights standards at a time when it seeks to join the European Union. (With reporting by BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos).
