Hand grenades found during an investigation into an alleged coup attempt operation in Erzincan are from the same batch as the hand grenades seized in a car with two NCOs who were caught red-handed in a grenade attack on a bookstore in the Şemdinli district of Hakkari, according to evidence folders turned over to defense lawyers in the Erzincan probe on Monday.

Other hand grenades found during the investigation appear to be from the same batch as other grenades used in various past attacks.According to the indictment accepted by the Erzurum 2nd High Criminal Court earlier this month, Erzincan Chief Public Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner, 3rd Army Commander Gen. Saldıray Berk and 12 other suspects were implementing the initial stages of a subversive military coup plot against the government and religious segments of society prepared by Col. Dursun Çiçek. There are 14 suspects in the trial, whose first hearing is slated for early May. Eleven of the defendants are in custody, while three have been released pending trial. The suspects include a senior general, a chief prosecutor, two colonels, one major, one sergeant, four noncommissioned officers, three National Intelligence Organization (MİT) employees and a civilian. The suspects are being accused of implementing Çiçek's Action Plan against Reactionaryism by framing individuals in certain religious organizations for crimes they did not commit by planting hand grenades and ammunition in their homes and offices.During the investigation various weapons and ammunition were found in Erzincan's Çatalarmut Reservoir area. A hand grenade found in this area had the same serial number as those found in the Şemdinli bookstore bombing case, according to a report from the police department's criminology lab now included in the evidence folders of the indictment. The serial numbers on two other hand grenades found during the investigation match that of a hand grenade seized by the Şırnak Police Department's Anti-organized Crime and Smuggling Department on Dec. 28, 2002. Yet another one found in Erzincan matches a hand grenade used in an attack on İstanbul's Ümraniye Police Station on Nov. 22, 2000. Another one matches one of the three hand grenades used in a 2006 attack on a municipal clinic in İzmir that left a police officer dead. The report also says a hand grenade found in Çatalarmut matches one of the five hand grenades found in a terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) cell house in May of 2004. The report says the hand grenades seem to be connected to 30 past incidents.Two hand grenades with matching serial numbers indicates that they were produced in the same batch, meaning they were manufactured at the same time by the same manufacturer in the same country. It also means that they quite possibly came to their final destination from the same source. This provides valuable evidence for the prosecutors, who say that the Erzincan plotters are connected to the wider Ergenekon network, a clandestine network charged with attempting to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government. Ergenekon is also believed to be behind numerous attacks staged to create chaos in the country and trigger a military takeover.Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt, the land forces commander at the time of the Şemdinli incident, had praised one of the officers involved, Ali Kaya, saying, “I know him, he's a good kid.” The two officers, Kaya and Öcan İldeniz, went through a lengthy trial process. They were given nearly 40 years each in a trial heard by a civilian court that was later declared a mistrial by the Supreme Court of Appeals. They are currently standing trial in a military court; however, both have been released pending trial.Kaya and İldneiz threw a hand grenade into the Umut bookstore. A passerby named Mehmet Azhir Korkmaz died in the incident. Residents captured three perpetrators at the site of the incident. Two turned out to be noncommissioned officers from the local gendarmerie command, while the other one was an “itirafçı,” literally a “confessor,” a term used for ex-members of the PKK recruited later by an illegal intelligence structure inside the gendarmerie as informants and hit men. When the prosecutor was investigating the crime scene, Gendarmerie Spc. Sgt. Tanju Çavuş opened fire on the crowd, killing Ali Yılmaz. Çavuş was released after 68 days in jail. Ferhat Sarıkaya, the prosecutor investigating the incident, was disbarred after indicting Gen. Büyükanıt. 10 March 2010, WednesdayTODAY'S ZAMAN  İSTANBUL