Batı Çalışma Grubu

The Batı Çalışma Grubu (BÇG; English: West Study Group or West Working Group) was an alleged clandestine grouping within the Turkish military said to be linked to the Ergenekon organization. It was allegedly set up in 1997 by General Çevik Bir (then deputy-chief of the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey) as part of the process relating to the 1997 military memorandum (the "post-modern coup"), and active until at least May 2009. The primary activity of the group appears to have been classifying politicians, military personnel, journalists and others according to ethnic background, religious affiliation and political leanings, and to monitor the activity of those considered a potential danger to secularism in Turkey. This included monitoring some religious communities outside Turkey. It has been claimed that in 1997 BÇG had records on 6 million people, and offices in the Higher Education Board (YÖK) as well as in each branch of the military.

General Çevik Bir (then deputy-chief of the General Staff) has said he set up the group on the orders of then Chief of the General Staff İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, and that it was a legal group defending Turkey, acting on the instructions of the National Security Council in its 28 February meeting and a cabinet meeting in March 1997. According to General Çetin Saner, the head of the Turkish Gendarmerie's Intelligence Department at the time, the BÇG tried to create its own intelligence network, and had asked the Gendarmerie, police and National Intelligence Organization to forward information to it.

One member of the group, who was later expelled from the army for alleged "reactionaryism" (Islamist leanings), said that the meeting he had attended (chaired by General Çetin Doğan) had felt like organising "an army of occupation".

...
Wikipedia