Ergenekon or Ergeneqon (Turkish: Ergenekon, Mongolian: Эргүнэ хун/Ergüne khun) is a founding myth.
Some researchers claim the myth's Turkic origins, citing similarities between Göktürks and the Ergenekon epic; the first to make the comparison was Joseph de Guignes. However, the relationship is contested.
In the Turkic mythology the myth aims to explain the foundation of the Turkic Khaganate. The Ergenekon legend tells about a great crisis of the ancient Turks. Following a military defeat, the Turks took refuge in the legendary Ergenekon valley where they were trapped for four centuries. They were finally released when a blacksmith created a passage by melting rock, allowing the gray wolf Asena to lead them out. The people led out of the valley found the Turkic Khaganate, in which the valley functions as its capital. A New Year's ceremony commemorates the legendary ancestral escape from Ergenekon. The capital referred to is assumed to be Ordu-Baliq.
The Ergenekon trials are a series high-profile trials which have taken place in Turkey in which 275 people, including military officers, journalists and opposition lawmakers, all alleged members of Ergenekon, a supposed secularist clandestine organization, were accused of plotting against the Turkish government. The trials resulted in lengthy prison sentences for the majority of the accused.
Since Istanbul Heavy Penal Court 13 accepted the 2,455-page indictment against 86 defendants in the first case against alleged members of the supposed clandestine organization Ergenekon on 28 July 2008 a further 14 indictments were submitted up to February 2011. Until the fourth indictment the number of defendants had increased to 531 and more than 8,000 pages of indictments had been written. Most trials are held in Silivri Prison. At the beginning the courtroom could accommodate about 280 people. In June 2009, the prison's sport hall was converted for the term of the trial into a maxi courtroom with a capacity for 753 people.
Ergenekon is the name given to an alleged clandestine, secularist ultra-nationalist organization in Turkey with possible ties to members of the country's military and security forces. The would-be group, named after Ergenekon, a mythical place located in the inaccessible valleys of the Altay Mountains, is accused of terrorism in Turkey.
Ergenekon is by some believed to be part of the "deep state".The existence of the "deep state" was affirmed in Turkish opinion after the Susurluk scandal in 1996. Alleged members have been indicted on charges of plotting to foment unrest, among other things by assassinating intellectuals, politicians, judges, military staff, and religious leaders, with the ultimate goal of toppling the incumbent government.
Ergenekon's modus operandi has been compared to Operation Gladio's Turkish branch, the Counter-Guerrilla. By April 2011, over 500 people had been taken into custody and nearly 300 formally charged with membership of what prosecutors described as "the Ergenekon terrorist organization", which they claimed had been responsible for virtually every act of political violence—and controlled every militant group—in Turkey over the last 30 years.