The allegations surfaced after a car crash in 1996 near the western Turkey town of Susurluk in which Catli, his girlfriend and a local police chief were killed. Another passenger in the Mercedes vehicle was then member of parliament Sedat Bucak, a Kurdish chieftain, who survived the crash.

Prosecutors sort to have Agar tried on charges of protecting a wanted criminal and abuse of ministerial power but he was spared trial thanks to parliamentary immunity.

In elections last year Agar lost his parliamentary seat and prosecutors started procedures for Agar to go on trial.

Agar did not attend Tuesday’s court hearing with his lawyers presenting the court with a medical certificate which said he was ill.

Shortly afterwards the Ankara Third Serious Crimes Court ruled that due to procedural reasons it was not the correct court to try the case.

The Ankara 11th Serious Crimes Court will now take up the case. If found guilty Agar faces up to six years’ imprisonment.

Delay hits trial of former Turkish minister accused of mafia links – Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:18:32 GMT – Author : DPA – This story was found at: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/241109,delay-hits-trial-of-former-turkish-minister-accused-of-mafia-links.html

A document recovered from suspected gang member retired Gen. Veli Küçük, who is under arrest for the Ergenekon investigation, and Tuncay Güney, his former aide, titled “Octobus (State Organized Crime) mafia (La Cosa Nostra) İstanbul/September 2000,” explains the plan in detail.

This document discusses the formation of new mafia groups by the state. It asserts that all bodies and organizations of the Turkish Republic must be reorganized, including mafia organizations.

It cites mafia groups working in affiliation with the US Pentagon as examples. Lucky Luciano, a prominent Italian mafia boss in the US, should be taken as model, it argues. In a statement he gave to the police in 2001, Güney revealed the Ergenekon formation and listed the potential organizations that could be included in such a national mafia organization.

Famous figures from Turkey’s criminal underground, such as Mahmut Yıldırım, Sedat Peker, Drej Ali (also known as Ali Yasak) and Sami Hoştan, were among them.

According to the plan, a civilian board would be set up inside the General Staff structure. There would be three members on the board.

One of them would be the leader, one a theoretician and one a courier. The leader would be modeled after Luciano.

According to the Ergenekon gang, this is a method frequently employed by the intelligence organizations in developed countries.

Organized criminal organizations control far greater sums of money than the budgets of many countries. For this reason, secret services tend to organize these organizations with a view to controlling such funds and financing their illegal activities in other countries. The Ergenekon gang proposed copying this.

Ergenekon plan to set up a national mafia uncovered – 09.07.2008 – AHMET DÖNMEZ – Feza Newspaper Publishing Co. – This story was found at:http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=147052&bolum=100

A mafia leader serving four years in prison for heading a crime gang was brought to the Beşiktaş courthouse on Friday to testify to a prosecutor investigating a political crime gang believed to have been carrying out preparations for an overthrow of the government.

On Friday, Alaattin Çakıcı, arguably the most famous mafia boss in Turkey, who was convicted of “leading an organized crime gang” by an İstanbul court last year, was brought to the chambers of prosecutor Zekeriya Öz at the Beşiktaş courthouse yesterday to testify as part of an investigation into Ergenekon, a shadowy and powerful neo-nationalist gang suspected of being behind a number of politically motivated murders, including the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. Possible links Çakıcı might have to Ergenekon were not immediately clear.

So far 47 suspects have been arrested as part of the Ergenekon investigation, launched after the police found a house full of guns and explosives in İstanbul last June. Those who have been arrested include retired generals and army officials; public figures such as journalists; mafia leaders including drug lords; and the previous suspects of a 1996 car crash in Susurluk which revealed that a police chief at the time had dealings with a mafia leader and a deputy, who wss the chief of a Kurdish clan in the Southeast funded by the state to fight the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Four years for Çakıcı
Çakıcı was convicted by the Istanbul 14th Higher Criminal Court last year in February. The court ruled Çakıcı should be tried under Article 220, Section 1 of the new Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which foresees punishment for “forming a criminal organization.” When handing down Çakıcı’s four-year sentence, the judge said, “The way crime was committed, the significance of the law [Article 220] and the severity of the danger stemming from the crime should be taken into consideration, and a fair and logical punishment should be decided based on the minimum sentence.”

Mafia leader testifies in Ergenekon probe – Today’s Zaman – 12.04.2008 – http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=138845&bolum=101

Dutch authorities have said the increases in prices are related to the large amount of drugs that were seized by Turkish authorities at the Kapikule custom gate.

Most drugs smuggled between West and East pass through Turkey, simply because of its geographic location on the route between south-east Asia and Europe. In recent years, Turkey has increased its operations. In the first four months of 2007 alone, customs officials seized 1.5 tons of drugs.

Dutch security officials have informed Turkish authorities that drug prices in Europe have increased from between 50,000 to 80,000 to 100,000 euros. Istanbul Customs Director Selahattin Aldemir said that Dutch authorities have praised Turkey for its efforts and referred to the increase in prices as a sign of success.

Customs Deputy Undersecretary Bülent Ertem told Today’s Zaman that operations against drug trafficking would continue at full speed. The common belief that you can pass anything through Customs as along as you tip the officials has significantly changed in recent years, Ertem said, adding that the success of operations is related to the trust and cooperation of Customs officials.

Technology has been updated at Custom gates as well, Ertem said, adding, “We have X-ray machines at border gates; we’ve increased the number of drug-sniffing dogs; and we’ve better trained our personnel.”

Noting that drug smugglers can infiltrate men into the security department of some customs gates because they employ agencies, Ertem said in Turkey, Customs did not employ agencies so infiltration was not possible. Ertem also said they’ve received important intelligence and will soon launch a wide-scale operation. He also noted that the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Mafia have connections in smuggling drugs through Turkey.

According to the deputy customs undersecretary, there was a 400 percent increase in drug-operation success in the period between 2002 and 2006, when compared to the 1999-2002 period. The first three months of the new year recorded a 438 percent increase in drug-operation success when compared to the same period of last year. Drug seizures are believed to stop only 10 percent of the drugs that pass through Turkey.

Asked if the increase in volume of drugs that the authorities have seized are a sign that more drugs are passing through Turkey or if Turkish authorities are doing a better job, Ertem said there hasn’t been a significant increase in drug use abroad over the past three months, implying that authorities have been doing a better job.

Recalling that the PKK and Mafia have links to drug trafficking, Ertem said they have received death threats because of the operations they have launched. He also noted that they have been subject to political pressure as well.

On Feb. 3, 2007, authorities seized 58 kilograms of heroin at the Edirne Ipsala border gate. Only six days later, authorities seized 565 kilograms of heroin hidden in pizza boxes at the Kapikule border gate. It was the largest amount of drugs ever seized at a customs gate.

Three days later, authorities seized 202 kilograms of heroin stored in caskets. On Feb. 28, 208 kilograms of heroin were seized in Istanbul and 305 kilograms in Kapikule on March 29.

24.04.2007 AHMET DÖNMEZ İSTANBUL – http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=print&link=109237&yazarAd=

It is understood from Gündeş’s accounts that the actions and statements of the years between 1960 and 2000 were correct.

So, when the state institutions could not deal with a situation, it employed men from the mafia, hired hit men from outside and lured them to fire guns “in the name of the country.”

Gündeş explained very well the logic that dominated MİT in the past. He demonstrated the miserable state this institution was in by “kissing mafia boss Alaattin Çakıcı on both cheeks” and sending his regards to him. Gündeş’s words made me sad for MİT. I was one of those that believed this institution to be more proper not only today but also in the past. Apparently it is no different from other security organizations.

There is no need for discussion anymore.

The state’s security units employ people from outside and instigate them, or simply look the other way when it serves their purposes.

Here are the memoirs of some retired officers, their explanations on TV, the accounts of former police or law officers, the statements by Gündeş.

On top of all these add the treatment of Ogün Samast, the police and the gendarmerie, and you will see what is trying to be done.

It was something else that actually stopped ASALA:

I would like to add a last point here:

It was not the right wing militant and mafia boss Çatlı or mafia boss Çakıcı that finished off the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA). They are bragging in vain. It was the raid of Paris’s Orly Airport in 1983 that finished the ASALA off. Feeling ill at ease by the raid, the French and U.S. Armenians who used to support ASALA monetarily stopped the aid and the issue was closed. I know this through French authorities that were involved. The ones that were instrumental in the stopping of the aid were MİT and the Foreign Ministry. Otherwise, ASALA did not yield because it was afraid of the Turkish bullies. They were stopped because they had gone too far with their murders.