Ergenekon trial to start in Turkey on October 20th

27/07/2008

ANKARA, Turkey -- The first session in the Ergenekon trial will be held on October 20th, the Istanbul Higher Criminal Court decided on Friday (July 25th). Eighty-six people are charged with establishing an armed terrorist organisation aimed at toppling the government. According to the 2,500-page indictment made public on Friday, the group planned a series of high-profile assassinations, with targets that included Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and Chief of General Staff General Yasar Buyukanit.

In other news, the military announced on Sunday the launch of fresh air strikes Saturday against suspected terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq. Twelve targets in the Kandil mountain were bombed after midnight, the statement said. On Friday, a landmine believed to be detonated by the PKK killed three Turkish soldiers in Sirnak province, near Turkey's border with Syria. (AFP, DPA, AP, Hurriyet, Reuters - 27/07/08; Hurriyet, Milliyet, Dogan news agency, Cumhuriyet, Vatan, Radikal - 26/07/08; AP, Turkish press, Reuters, Anadolu news agency, CNN Turk, AFP, Xinhua - 25/07/08)