Today’s Zaman 10 April 2009

Istanbul — A letter found during a search of Mustafa Ozbek’s house, the chairman of the workers’ union Turk Metal jailed on charges of being a member of the Ergenekon terrorist organization (http://www.answers.com/topic/ergenekon-organization), which allegedly plotted to topple the government, indicates that Ergenekon assassinated the reformist former Iranian Minister of Labor Dariush Forouhar along with his wife and Russian parliament member Galina Vasilyevna Starovoitova in 1998, the Taraf daily wrote.

According to the daily, a militant, nicknamed Gafur, of the terrorist organization wrote the letter, which opens, “To the attention of Mr. Mustafa Ozbek“, and continues with a narration of how Ergenekon killed three people: Forouhar and his wife in Iran, and Starovoitova in Russia.

The assassinations came after the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) currently jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was displaced from Syria. “Our esteemed chief deployed the most talented shooters for a must-do operation in Italy. In the meantime, Staravoitova, who had phone calls with the gang leader

[Ocalan] and who helped him find a country to seek refuge in, was shot by connections the chief himself has made with the teams in Ukraine. Former Iranian Labor Minister Forouhar, whose phone calls [to Ocalan] frequently started to pop up, was killed two days later with the chief’s arrival there. Our highly respectable chief then returned to Italy”, read the letter found in Ozbek’s house, according to Taraf’s story yesterday.

Ocalan, after being expelled from Syria, first went to Russia and then to Italy, from where Turkey asked Italian officials to turn him over to Turkey for trial. Whereas Turkish efforts for his extradition yielded no results in Italy, Ocalan was ultimately captured by Turkish intelligence agents and brought back to Turkey.

Russian deputy Staravoitova was shot dead in front of her house on November 20, 1998; Forouhar and his wife were stabbed in their house together two days after Staravoitova’s death. Both assassinations were claimed to have been executed by the deep states of Russia and Iran at the time. Three Russians were found guilty of Staravoitova’s death and sentenced to 11-23 years in prison; three Iranian agents were executed and five others were sentenced to lifetime in prison in the case of Forouhar’s death.

However, what is indicated by the letter is that the Turkish deep state assassinated both politicians because of the phone calls they had with PKK leader Ocalan and the help they offered to him.

The letter also refers to the financial needs of the Ergenekon terrorist organization for operations to be conducted in Italy, Germany, Libya and Sudan, where the militants were going to distribute money to 1459 individuals.

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Critiques against above posting:

From: Mohammad xxxx<<xxxx>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 9:02 pm
Subject: Re: Letter reveals Ergenekon’s assassinations of I ranian, Russian politicians

Dear Kaveh,   This report is up to now, unverified. Iranian intelligence ministry admitted to the murder of a dozen political activists and intellectuals in the late 1990s. Those murders are (relatively) well documented. No one up to this point disputed where the orders for these murders originated. I think you are being unfair here. By propagating unverified, rather sensational and unverified news, you may aid easing the burden of blame of some real criminals.  

Best,
Mohammad

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From: ash xxxx <xxxx>
To:
[email protected]
Sent: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 1:48 pm
Subject: Re: Letter reveals Ergenekon’s assassinations of I ranian, Russian politicians

Very unlikely scenario and of dubious origin; but then international espionage and terrorism has no bounds and strange bedfellows are often found.

Regards,
Ash.

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From: Behrooz Broumand <[email protected]>
To:
[email protected]
Sent: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 8:58 pm
Subject: Re: Letter reveals Ergenekon’s assassinations of Iranian, Russian politicians

Dear Prof.Farrokh;

Ba  droud,thank you very much for the information,I doubt if this is true?what do you think is the cause of such a discovery at this time?

Bedroud,Behrooz

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Related:
———
‘Deep state plot’ grips Turkey
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7225889.stm

Massive Trial in Turkey Provides Look into ‘Deep State’
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,603581,00.html

Ergenekon chart mapped out
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=153889

The Ergenekon operation
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/11420362.asp?gid=244

Ergenekon arms site unearthed in Golbashi
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=163647

Ergenekon linked to killings in Iran
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=91193&sectionid=351020204
http://www.jahannews.com/fa/pages/?cid=45759
http://aftabnews.ir/vdccopq4.2bqep8laa2.html