This morning (12 March), retired Colonel Mehmet Ülger was taken into custody in Ankara as part of the investigation into the clandestine ultra-nationalist Ergenekon organisation.

Commander was on duty in Malatya at time of murders

Ülger is at the same time a witness in the court case dealing with the murder of three men at the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya two years ago.

Tilman Ekkehart Geske (of German origin), Necati Aydın and Uğur Yüksel were murdered on 18 April 2007. At the time, Ülger was the gendarmerie commander in the province.

At first, he was named as an instigator to the murders. Ülger took a journalist, Sabah reporter Ömer Adıyaman, to court for reporting this allegation, which came to light with a letter of denunciation.

On 20 February, the Malatya 3rd Heavy Penal Court decided to hear Ülger and nine other witnesses at the hearing on 13 April.

Another person called as witness is Ruhi Abat, a research assistant at the city’s İnönü University’s theology faculty. He apparently informed the gendarmerie on missionary activities.

Two cases connected?

Some media organs have now started to speculate that this new detention may mean that the prosecution in the Ergenekon case has found links to the Malatya murders.

According to NTV, Ülger has been found to have conducted telephone conversations with several suspects in the Ergenekon case. One detained suspect, Abdurrahim Doğru, a lecturer at Diyarbakır’s Dicle University, has spoken of Ülger in his statements. (TK/AG)