Ergenekon websites: information warfare on Cyprus

I saw Today's Zaman reported that the "probe reveals Ergenekon's information warfare sites"(1); however, it didn't report that the nationalist extremist propaganda included a campaign of psychological warfare on Cyprus (and Turkish opinion on Cyprus), too.

[Updating this information, about the origins of Ergenekon, Deep State Websites: Turkish Defence Ministry IPs.]

A large number of professional Web sites offering nationalist content and pseudo-scientific research about Armenian genocide allegations, Turkey's Kurdish population and Greece and Turkey's religious citizens that have been on the Internet for a long time have been found to be operated by Ergenekon, a clandestine terrorist organization charged with attempting to overthrow the government....

The Ergenekon investigation recently revealed that 35 Internet domains with similar content and design were registered with the same company.

The sites seem to have been trying to foment public opinion in line with the goals of the Ergenekon organization. The sites include www.abdullahocalanakademisi.info, apopkk.com, armenianreality.com, cameria.org, gencizbiz.net, genclik.info, gnkur.net, greekmurderers.net, irtica.net, irtica.org, naksilik.com, nursi.info, pkkapo.com, pkkgercegi.com, terorveguvenlik.net, turkatak.com and turkeyturks.com.

A few [All] of the websites are dead.(2) Some sites are [were] old addresses for new websites, or alternative spellings or domains.(3) All of the [previously] live sites - Armenian Reality, Greek Murderers, İrtica(.com), İrtica(.org), Nakşilik, Teröre Güvenlik ("Security Against Terror") - present[ed] propaganda about Cyprus, as well as the Armenian Genocide, the Kurdish Problem, Greece's Turkish minority and Turkey's religious minorities. Since two other Ergenekon websites (not mentioned in the English-language version of the article) PKK Gerçeği and Türk Ses also present[ed] it, I suspect all of them do [did].

[Greek Murderers and Türk Ses, however, are [were] the two that have [had] substantial material, some of Türk Ses's and all of Greek Murderers' from the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA).]

In fact, Zaman's original, Turkish-language edition, "Ergenekon's internet sites: here is the centre of provocations [Ergenekon'un internet siteleri: İşte provokasyonun merkezi]" noted that Cyprus was one of the subjects of these sites' professional propaganda, that 'all of the red line issues in the official ideology (terrorism, reaction, the PKK, the Armenian massacre, Cyprus, West Thrace) are described [devletin kırmızı çizgileri içindeki (terör, irtica, PKK, Ermeni soykırımı, Kıbrıs, Batı Trakya) tüm başlıklarla ilgili resmi tezlerin anlatıldığı]'.

It also named other Ergenekon websites that the English-language version did not, like www.yunanli.com, where, 'on entering, you find out about Greeks' massacres in Western Thrace and Cyprus [yazınca da Yunanlıların Batı Trakya ve Kıbrıs katliamlarına ulaşıyorsunuz]'. (Like the other links above, look at the Google search results if you don't want to add to the website's hit count.)

But curiously, in the translating and editing process, everything about Cyprus disappeared from the English-language edition (but I do believe it was a strange accident - just a very strange one).

[Post extended on the 16th of February 2009.]

When I was reviewing and grouping my sources of propaganda - "official", "community", "deep state", etc. - I noticed repetition of material across "deep state" and "community" websites (for example, 'attempted genocide and ethnic cleansing in Cyprus', and '7 Questions and 7 Answers').






It wasn't surprising until I saw the source. Known Ergenekon website Greek Murderers credited the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) for the information.






ATAA's website wasn't listed as an Ergenekon website, but elsewhere (via Simon Maghakyan), Taner Akçam had identified the organisation as a deep state group. (Simon Maghakyan also showed that another deep state website, Tall Armenian Tale, 'borrowed material' from both ATAA and known Ergenekon website, Armenian Reality.)

As David Rose, Mike Mejia and Luke Ryland reported, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) operations suggested that the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (and the American-Turkish Council (ATC)) were Turkish deep state organisations involved in 'criminal activity', illegal arms dealing, black market nuclear weapons information trading, drug trafficking and money laundering, classified military technologies trading, and the bribery and corruption that enabled all of the other business to continue.

1. This was another of Taraf's scoops.
   
   
   
   (Yesterday's [Now both the] original article, "the psychological war's Ergenekonist [psikolojik savaşın Ergenekoncusu]", has been replaced by [and the next article on] "E-ergenekon" [are available].)
2. The dead websites are: Abdullah Öcalan Akademisi (PKK Leader "Abdullah Öcalan's Academy"); Apo PKK; Gençlik ("Youth"); gnkur (inspired by gnkur@tsk.mil.tr, the e-mail address for the Turkish General Staff); Nursi ("(of) Glory"?); and PKK Apo. Türk Atak ("Brave/Militant Turk") is live but empty; it's for sale.
   
   
3. The old and alternative websites are: Cameria for Greek Murderers; Gençiz Biz ("We are the Youth") for Özgür Genç ("Free Youth"); and Turkey Turks for Türk Ses ("Turkish Voice"). Nakşilik (a Sufi Islamic order, Nakşibendilik) is a live alternative address for İrtica ("Reaction").
   
   
   
   Both Özgür Genç and Türk Ses are in the Turkish-language article but not the English-language one, as are other examples of spelling and domain alternatives, like pkkgercegi.net (instead of pkkgercegi.com), or "turkihsgenocide.net" (rather than "Turkish Genocide") [though that may have been a typo in the newspaper report].