TODAY'S ZAMAN - Transcripts of phone conversations seized during the investigation into Ergenekon, a shadowy network whose suspected members are accused of having planned and staged attacks and assassinations for the ultimate aim of toppling the government, have revealed curious conversations between high-profile bureaucrats and media bosses concerning the takeover of a failed bank in the year 2002.
The transcripts -- which are included in evidence backing the prosecutor's indictment against a total of 86 Ergenekon suspects, 47 of whom are currently in custody -- indicate that media groups, bureaucrats at state banking agencies and government personnel together arranged for the takeover of a bank confiscated by the state.
The conversations are about Pamukbank, which was confiscated from Cukurova Holding, owned by Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, in 2002 in a controversial takeover by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) allegedly to recoup nearly $6 billion owed by the bank.
One of the transcripts that was seized from an Ergenekon suspect's home is the record of a phone conversation between then BDDK Deputy President Ali Vural and Veli Dural, a board member of Dogan Holding, a Cukurova rival, and also owner of the biggest media group in Turkey. The call occurred at 5:30 p.m. precisely two days before June 18, 2002, the day the bank was taken over. The BDDK bureaucrat asks for media support to shift public opinion in favor of the takeover during the phone conversation.
The BDDK's Vural also calls a man he refers to as Mr. Anderson, the deputy chief consultant of Citibank at the time, on the morning of June 18, 2002, the day of the takeover. Mr. Anderson stated that the business group he represents is irritated by the Cukurova Group, noting that Turkey's economy will improve again with the help of Kemal Dervis, the economy minister during the post-economic crisis period in Turkey. It is not clear why Mr. Anderson's bosses were uneasy about Cukurova.
Aydin and Yilmaz arrange the deal
In response to a question on the Pamukbank deal, Vural tells the Citibank chief consultant: "Sir, do not worry at all about that deal. Everything was handled personally by Mr. [then Deputy Prime Minister Mesut] Yilmaz and Mr. Dogan [Aydin Dogan, head of the Dogan group]."
In the same conversation, Mr. Anderson says: "This holding has grown so big it now spells trouble for us. The people I represent are very unhappy about this. The company will be distributed as we have planned."
'I will teach Engin a lesson'
In a conversation between Yilmaz and Vural on the morning of June 18, Yilmaz tells Vural that he will remove BDDK chief Engin Akcakoca from office. Yilmaz asks Vural: "Why hasn't Engin called me? Why isn't he calling me about this?" and Vural replies, "I don't know, sir." Yylmaz then states: "Tell me the truth, where is Engin? He is finished. I will replace him. I am thinking of you instead of him, what do you say to this?" Vural replies: "As you deem fit, sir. He told me to call you. He says he gets sick of your questions." Yylmaz replies: "So that's how it is. The prince needs to learn his lesson. I will teach him his lesson once he gets this over with."
A brief history of corruption in Turkey
Between the years 1985 and 2000, before new business reforms were enacted to fend off corruption, evidence of large-scale corruption -- mostly in public tenders -- was discovered almost on a daily basis.
The corruption claims that emerged during the coalition government of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP, now ANAVATAN) were mainly related to public tenders for energy projects, earthquake relief work and highway construction. Then a wave of corruption hit the finance sector, as many banks, including Türkbank, Demirbank, Pamukbank, Etibank, Egebank, Interbank, Imar Bank, Sümerbank, Türkbank and Toprak Bank announced losses due to high debt.
Background on Ergenekon
The existence of Ergenekon, a network thought to be a part of a phenomenon known as the deep state in Turkey, has been known of for some time but its official discovery occurred in the summer of 2007, when police discovered a shanty house in Istanbul being used as an arms depot. More than 40 suspects, including former generals and other ex-army members, academics, journalists, businessmen and mafia bosses have been arrested in the ensuing investigation, which took nearly a year to complete.
The indictment made public last month claims the Ergenekon network is behind a series of political assassinations over the past two decades. The victims include a secularist journalist, Ugur Mumcu, long believed to have been assassinated by Islamic extremists in 1993; the head of a business conglomerate, Ozdemir Sabanci, who was shot dead by militants of the extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) in his high-security office in 1996; secularist academic Necip Hablemitoglu, who was also believed to have been killed by Islamic extremists, in 2002; and a 2006 attack on the Council of State that left a senior judge dead. Alparslan Arslan, found guilty of the Council of State killing, said he attacked the court in protest of an anti-headscarf ruling it had made. But the indictment contains evidence that he was connected with Ergenekon and that his family received large sums of money from unidentified sources after the shooting.
The indictment also says Veli Kucuk, believed to be one of the leading members of the network, had threatened Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist slain by a teenager in 2007, before his murder -- a sign that Ergenekon could be behind that murder as well. The first hearing of the trial is scheduled for October.

TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES