By Prensa Latina
Istanbul : At least thirty people have been arrested in Turkey, accused of being members of a clandestine group within the State structure, committing criminal acts and plotting against the government.
The operation was carried out in three cities on Tuesday, and Ret.Gen. Veli Kucuk and attorneys Kemal Kerincsiz and Fuat Turgut are among the detainees, according to media reports.
Other people arrested include Aksam daily journalist Guler Momurcu, Ret. Col. Fikri Karadaq and spokesman for the Orthodox Patriarchate Sevgi Erenerol.
Police consider all of them members of an illegal ultranationalist organization conspiring against the government with terrorist acts, for which they found an arsenal during searches of over 40 houses in Istanbul, Bursa and Esmirna.
According to Radikal radio, the investigation is expected to shed light on an attack against the State Council in Ankara in May 2006, during which a judge was killed and another four people wounded, as well as a bomb attack against republican Cumhuriyet daily and the killing of journalist Hrant Dink, as explosives used that time were similar to those used then in those actions.
Among those implicated are leaders of the Democratic Society Party, pro Kurd, Ahmet Turk, Leyla Zana, Sebahat Tuncel and Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir, Nobel literature prizewinner Orhan Pamuk and Zaman newspaper columnist Fehmi Koru.