Turkey

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The Turkish Council of State (Turkish: Danıştay) is the highest administrative court in the Republic of Turkey and is based in Ankara. Its role and tasks are prescribed by the Constitution of Turkey within the articles on the supreme courts.

The president of the council is Mustafa Birden.

Contents 1 2006 shootings 1.1 Ergenekon 2 References 3 External links

[edit] 2006 shootings

On 17 May 2006, a gunman named Alparslan Arslan made his way into the Council of State building and subsequently shot dead one judge and injured four others. Deputy head Tansel Çölaşan claimed that the attacker shouted "God is Great" before firing.^[1] One of the wounded judges had been criticized for ruling against teachers wearing Muslim head scarves.

During his deposition, Arslan said that he had consulted another lawyer named Kemalettin Gülen, a relative of Fethullah Gülen, before the assault. Gülen told Arslan that he could know who to attack by seeing their pictures in the Islamist Vakit newspaper, and that he was willing to help Arslan if needed.^[2]

Ahmet Hakan of the daily Hürriyet said that the two were friends, and that Kemalettin Gülen had harassed both him and Council of State president Mustafa Birden by telephone (confirmed by Arslan), adding that Gülen is currently wanted for evading military service.^[3]

Arslan's father, İdris, has made contradictory remarks on the matter. Initially he said his son was not religious and must have been coerced. One month later he defended his son's actions in the name of upholding the nation's values. Ergenekon prosecutors revealed that after the assassination, Arslan's mother and father had received 32,000 euros and $30,000, respectively.^[4]

An investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations on stolen weaponry in Iraq revealed that the gun was of the same type used in shooting priest Andrea Santoro (whose attacker had shouted the same words).^[5][6]

[edit] Ergenekon

There are allegations that the attack was orchestrated by retired gendarmerie general Veli Küçük, who was detained in the Ergenekon investigation on conspiracy charges. Newspapers have published photographs of Arslan and Küçük standing side-by-side.^[7]

The case has been consolidated with that of the recent bombing of the newspaper Cumhuriyet, also allegedly connected to Ergenekon.^[8]

On 13 February 2008, Alparslan Arslan and Osman Yıldırım were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The detailed ruling by Ankara's 11th High Criminal Court stated that no connection to Ergenekon was found. The conclusion took into consideration a 550-page file submitted by the Istanbul public prosecutor's office.^[9]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Judge dies in Turkey court attack". BBC News. 2006-05-17. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4989034.stm. Retrieved 2008-08-03. 
2. ^ "Arslan: Hedefte Birand ve Erbil de vardı" (in Turkish). Hürriyet. Anadolu Agency. 2006-08-11. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/4907091.asp?m=1&gid=69&srid=3041&oid=1. Retrieved 2008-10-25. 
3. ^ Hakan, Ahmet (2008-04-06). "Tehditçi avukat Fethullah Gülen’in amcaoğlu çıktı" (in Turkish). Hürriyet. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/8630410.asp?yazarid=131&gid=61&sz=69819. Retrieved 2008-10-13. 
4. ^ "Ergenekon trial resumes calmly and quietly". Today's Zaman. 2008-11-04. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=157777&bolum=101. Retrieved 2008-11-29. "My son couldn’t have possibly done this for the headscarf. He is not a graduate of an imam-hatip high school. He is not even religious. My daughter doesn’t wear a headscarf. There are shady powers that have used him in this act...There are enemies of Islam and the Quran in this country. There are many people with Muslim names, such as Mehmet and Mustafa, who are actually Armenian and Greek. These people are betraying our country’s values under the guise of secularism. This nation will teach their lesson to those who don’t respect the values of this nation." 
5. ^ Gerger, Adnan (2007-02-23). "Kayıp silahlar Türkiye’de kullanıldı" (in Turkish). NTV-MSNBC. http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/400739.asp. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
6. ^ "Turkish court upholds sentence for priest's killer". Reuters. 2007-10-04. http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL0454885220071004. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
7. ^ "Veli Küçük neden her taşın altından çıkıyor?" (in Turkish). Radikal. 2007-01-28. http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=211392. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
8. ^ Arslan, Metin; Ceyhan, Bulent (2008-12-17). "High court issues landmark decision". Today's Zaman. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=161491&bolum=100. Retrieved 2008-12-23. "The high court ordered that the Council of State shooting and a hand grenade attack at a newspaper be merged and investigated in light of a suggested link established between them and the Ergenekon network." 
9. ^ Tahincioglu, Gokcer (2008-07-27). "Danistay Bilmecesi" (in Turkish). Milliyet. http://www.milliyet.com.tr/Siyaset/HaberDetay.aspx?aType=HaberDetay&Kategori=siyaset&ArticleID=971493&Date=27.07.2008&b=Dan%FD%FEtay%20bilmecesi. Retrieved 2009-01-07. 

[edit] External links

• Official Web site (Turkish) (English) (French)

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