Ayhan ÇarkınAyhan Çarkın is a Turkish policeman. He was a member of its special forces unit, and says with the sanction of state officials he personally killed 1000 people at the height of the Turkey-PKK conflict. The leader of the Special Operations Department , İbrahim Şahin, said Çarkın was the most...
. Prominent member of the police force's Special Operations Department (
The Susurluk scandal was a scandalA political scandal is a kind of political corruption that is exposed and becomes a scandal, in which politicians or government officials are accused of engaging in various illegal, corrupt, or unethical practices...
involving the close relationship between the Turkish government, the armed forces, and organized crimeOrganized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
. It took place during the peak of the Turkey–Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict, in the mid-1990s. The relationship came into existence after the National Security CouncilThe National Security Council comprises the Chief of Staff, select members of the Council of Ministers, and the President of the Republic...
(MGK) posited the need for the marshaling of the nation's resources to combat the separatist, militant Kurdistan Workers' PartyThe Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK).
The scandal surfaced with a car crash on 3 November 1996, near SusurlukSusurluk is a small town and a district of Balıkesir Province in northwestern Turkey. It is famous for its production soap and dairy products.İstanbul-İzmir road passes through Susurluk. Susurluk is known for its toasted sandwich with tomato paste and its bubbly ayran. The population is 23,995...
, in the province of BalıkesirBalıkesir is the capital city of Balıkesir Province. Balıkesir is in the Marmara region of Turkey and has a population of 265,747 inhabitants. Old name is Karesi or Karasi.- History :...
. The victims included the deputy chief of the Istanbul police, a parliament deputy who led a powerful Kurdish clan, and the leader of the Grey WolvesThe Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
(who was a contract killer on InterpolInterpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
's red listAn Interpol notice or international notice is issued by Interpol to share information between its members. There are seven types, six of which are known by their colour codes: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black, Orange....
).
The state had been engaged in an escalating low intensity conflictLow intensity conflict is the use of military forces applied selectively and with restraint to enforce compliance with the policies or objectives of the political body controlling the military force...
with the PKK since 1984. The conflict reached an apex when the PKK planned to proclaim their independence by 1994. Towards the end of 1992, a furious debate in the NSC about how to proceed was taking place. Doves such as president Turgut ÖzalHalil Turgut Özal was Prime Minister of Turkey and President of Turkey . As Prime Minister, he transformed the economy of Turkey by paving the way for the privatization of many state enterprises.-Early life and career:...
and general Eşref BitlisEşref Bitlis was a general in the Turkish Gendarmerie, who died in a mysterious plane crash.-Early life and career:He was born 1933 in the eastern Anatolian city of Malatya, Turkey. He attended the Turkish Military Academy, finishing it in 1952 in the rank of a Lieutenant...
favored a non-military solution. However, both of these people died in 1993. The same year, the NSC prescribed a co-ordinated Black OperationA black operation or black op is a covert operation typically involving activities that are highly clandestine and often outside of standard military protocol or even against the law.-Origins:...
s campaign using special forcesSpecial forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
.
The Turkish branch of Operation GladioOperation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
, the "Counter-GuerrillaCounter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
", contributed much of these special forces.
Deputy prime minister Tansu ÇillerTansu Penbe Çiller is a Turkish economist and politician. She was Turkey's first and only female Prime Minister.- Early career :She is the daughter of a Turkish governor of Bilecik province during the 1950s. She graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American...
tasked the police forceThe General Directorate of Security are the civilian police force responsible for law enforcement in Turkey.-Structure:In the provinces, it operates under the command of governors and district governors . Civil administrators are responsible for the security and wellbeing of towns and districts...
, then under the leadership of Mehmet AğarMehmet Kemal Ağar is a Turkish former police chief, politician, government minister and leader of the Democratic Party.-Early years:...
, with crippling the PKK and assassinating its leader, Abdullah ÖcalanAbdullah Öcalan , Kurdish founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978.Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs...
. The police unit responsible for this job was the Special Operations Department ({{lang-tr|Özel Harekat Dairesi}}, ÖHD). Contract killer Abdullah ÇatlıAbdullah Çatlı was a Turkish convicted drug trafficker, and contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla. He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party...
also took part. This caused consternation in the National Intelligence Organization ({{lang-tr|Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı}}, MİT), which had formerly counted on Çatlı to undertake reprisals against the militant Armenian organization, ASALAAsala may refer to:* Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization.* Asalah Nasri, Syrian singer* Al Asalah, a Salafist political party in Bahrain...
. Especially concerned was Mehmet EymürMehmet Eymür is a retired Turkish intelligence official. He led the counter-terrorism department of the National Intelligence Organization , which he joined as a student in 1965 as a "pursuit officer"...
of the MİT's Operations/Counter-Terrorism Department, who had irreconcilable differences with Ağar.
The scandal has hence been pithily described as "the battle of the two Mehmets".
Like many such groups, the PKK was funded at least in part by narcotics.
Instead of merely preventing the PKK from profiting from illegal activities, these factions fought over who would take its place.
Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak described the police camp as "pro-European", and the MİT camp as "pro-American".
The guilty pocketed billions of dollars in profits from the drug smuggling.
This illegal activity on the state's part was partly motivated, or at least justified as such, by the tens of billions of dollars in loss of trade with Iraq due to the Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
.
To put this into perspective the heroin trade, then worth $50 billion, exceeded the state budget of $48 billion.{{Rp|588}} (Other sources quote the 1998 budget as 62 billion USD and the drug market as 70 billion USD, though only a fraction of this is tapped as commission.)
Although Ağar and Çiller resigned after the scandal, no-one received any punitive sentences. Ağar was eventually re-elected to Parliament (as a leader of the True Path PartyThe Democratic Party , abbreviated to DP, is a centre-right, conservative Turkish political party, established by Suleyman Demirel in 1983 as the Right Path Party...
, DYP), and the sole survivor of the crash, chieftain Sedat Bucak, was released.{{Rp|588}} Essentially, the perpetrators escaped justice.
Some reforms were made; e.g., the intelligence agency was restructured to end the infighting (with Eymür's department entirely dismantled).
Some hold that the scandal was made possible by the wresting control of the MIT away from military leadership in 1992.
Who's who
{{Expand section|date=December 2008}}
- Mehmet Ağar
Mehmet Kemal Ağar is a Turkish former police chief, politician, government minister and leader of the Democratic Party.-Early years:...
. Interior Minister. Police chief until March 1995.
- Sedat Bucak
Sedat Edip Bucak is a Turkish politician, a chieftain of Zaza Bucak tribe. He was involved in the Susurluk scandal.He born in Siverek. His father is İsmail Hakkı. He leads the Bucak tribe in Siverek, Şanlıurfa Province...
. DYPThe Democratic Party , abbreviated to DP, is a centre-right, conservative Turkish political party, established by Suleyman Demirel in 1983 as the Right Path Party...
ŞanlıurfaŞanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language , in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323 inhabitants Şanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language (Syriac ܐܘܪܗܝ Urhoy,Armenian Ուռհա Owr'ha, Arabic الرها ar-Ruhā), in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323...
MPA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, chieftain of a 20,000-strong village guard clanVillage guards ) are paramilitaries. Originally they were set up and funded by the Turkish state in the mid-1980s under the direction of Turgut Özal. Their stated purpose was to act as a local militia in towns and villages, protecting against attacks and reprisals from the insurgents, terrorists...
in SiverekSiverek is a town and district in the south-east of Turkey, in Şanlıurfa Province. Population 107,634 ; 247,000 .Siverek is in Şanlıurfa province but closer geographically to the large city of Diyarbakır...
.
- Abdullah Çatlı
Abdullah Çatlı was a Turkish convicted drug trafficker, and contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla. He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party...
. Leader of the ultranationalist Grey WolvesThe Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
, contract killer for the Counter-GuerrillaCounter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
.
- Ayhan Çarkın
Ayhan Çarkın is a Turkish policeman. He was a member of its special forces unit, and says with the sanction of state officials he personally killed 1000 people at the height of the Turkey-PKK conflict. The leader of the Special Operations Department , İbrahim Şahin, said Çarkın was the most...
. Prominent member of the police force's Special Operations Department ({{lang-tr|Özel *Harekât, ÖHD). Personally responsible for 1000 deaths.
- Tansu Çiller
Tansu Penbe Çiller is a Turkish economist and politician. She was Turkey's first and only female Prime Minister.- Early career :She is the daughter of a Turkish governor of Bilecik province during the 1950s. She graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American...
. Deputy prime minister, chairman of the DYP.
- Korkut Eken
Korkut Eken is a Turkish security officer trained in special warfare. He became involved in the Susurluk scandal after some of his subordinates, notably Ayhan Çarkın, were convicted of extrajudicial killings.- Career :...
. Expert of special warfare. Affiliations with both the MİT and the ÖHD. Recruited Kurdish militias to fight the PKK in the early 1990s.
- Mehmet Eymür
Mehmet Eymür is a retired Turkish intelligence official. He led the counter-terrorism department of the National Intelligence Organization , which he joined as a student in 1965 as a "pursuit officer"...
. Chief of the MIT's Counter-Terrorism department.
- Lazım Esmaeili
Lazım Esmaeili was a Kurdish Iranian spy operating in Turkey, who was found tortured and shot dead by unknown persons in Istanbul.Esmaelli was born 1945 in Urmia in Iran as a son of Selim....
and Askar SimitkoAskar Simitko, alternative spellings use "Asgar" and/or "Smitko", was a Kurdish Iranian spy operating in Turkey. He was found tortured and shot dead by unknown persons in Istanbul....
. Iranian SAVAMA agents.
- Tanju Akça... Diamond kingpin. Trafficking and relations with Albanian boss{[unrevealed} to the public] grey wolves interior <[Amway
- Doğan Güreş. Chief of the General Staff (December 1990-August 1994)
- Hüseyin Kocadağ. Head of the Istanbul police school. Former deputy chief of the Istanbul police. Former head of the Special Operations Department.
- Teoman Koman. Commander of the Gendarmerie (which JİTEM operates under).
- Sönmez Köksal. Undersecretary of the MİT.
- İbrahim Şahin
İbrahim Şahin is a Turkish police and state security official who served from 1976 to 1996. He led General Directorate of Security's special forces unit, the Special Operations Department and, following dismissal in 1996 for associating with ultra-nationalist drug trafficker and contact killer...
. Deputy chief of the ÖHD.
- Gonca Us. Çatlı's lover; former beauty queen.
Of the 59 people named in the third MIT report, 17 were dead by the time the report was published. Among them are 4 politicians, 4 businessmen, 14 mafia-connected nationalists, 5 military personnel, 13 security personnel, 4 MIT personnel, and 8 mafia-connected drug smugglers.
PKK-Turkey conflict
{{main|Turkey–Kurdistan Workers Party conflict}}
The fight against the Kurdistan Workers' PartyThe Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) reached its apotheosis in the early 1990s. The PKK wanted to proclaim independence by 1994 at the latest, with their breakaway state centered in ŞırnakŞırnak is a town in southeastern Turkey. It is the capital of Şırnak Province, a new province that split from the Hakkari province...
. The PKK essentially controlled the towns of Şırnak and CizreCizre is a town and district of Şırnak Province in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, located at the border to Syria, just to the north-west of the Turkish-Syrian-Iraqi tripoint....
from their hiding posts in the mountains of Cudi, Gabar, and Namaz.
The military decided that anyone who could be persuaded to fight the PKK—not just the military, but the police, the mafia, Kurdish opposition groups, etc.—had to make a concerted effort. The "1993 Strategy" was drafted. It called for targeting individuals suspected of financing the PKK, pre-emptively catchingA preemptive war is a war that is commenced in an attempt to repel or defeat a perceived inevitable offensive or invasion, or to gain a strategic advantage in an impending war before that threat materializes. It is a war which preemptively 'breaks the peace'. The term: 'preemptive war' is...
members of the PKK using special forcesSpecial forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
, comprehensive psychological warfarePsychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
, and a revamping of the military's inventory.
The proposal brought before the National Security CouncilThe National Security Council comprises the Chief of Staff, select members of the Council of Ministers, and the President of the Republic...
was initially rejected. Notable detractors were president Turgut ÖzalHalil Turgut Özal was Prime Minister of Turkey and President of Turkey . As Prime Minister, he transformed the economy of Turkey by paving the way for the privatization of many state enterprises.-Early life and career:...
and general Eşref BitlisEşref Bitlis was a general in the Turkish Gendarmerie, who died in a mysterious plane crash.-Early life and career:He was born 1933 in the eastern Anatolian city of Malatya, Turkey. He attended the Turkish Military Academy, finishing it in 1952 in the rank of a Lieutenant...
, who favored a peaceful solution. Both died in 1993. Bitlis was killed in a plane crash due to sabotage, while Özal purportedly died of a heart attack.
Çiller's rhetoric became more hawkish after this period.
With the opposition out of the way, the plan was executed, with lieutenant general Hasan Kundakçı at the helm of the military operations. Professional assassins like Abdullah Çatlı and Alaattin ÇakıcıAlaattin Çakıcı is a former member of the ultra-nationalist organization Grey Wolves and one of the leading mobs of the Turkish underworld.- Early years :...
took part, along with 2,500–5,000 members of the special forces.
Many of these men were plucked from the ranks of the clandestine Counter-GuerrillaCounter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
; the Turkish branch of the Operation GladioOperation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
.
The Counter-Guerrilla was originally established to prepare for the subversion of a possible Warsaw PactThe Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
invasion. However, once the USSR dissolvedThe dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
, the Counter-Guerrilla were used to fight the PKK.
It is alleged that during this period, a delegate including Çiller, Demirel, Hüsamettin CindorukHüsamettin Cindoruk is a Turkish politician and the 17th Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey between 1991-1995. He has also been the leader of two political parties, notably of the True Path Party.-Biography:...
(Speaker of the Parliament), Aydin Ilter (General Commander of the Gendarmerie), Nahit Mentese (Interior Minister), and Ağar (as police chief) held a meeting with twelve tribal chiefs.[Ahmet Zeydan, Tahir Adiyaman, Kamil Atak, Abdurrahman Ozbek, Suleyman Tatar, Abdurrahman Seylan, Hazim Abat, Osman Demir, Ramazan Cetin, Dilbaz Uncu, Isterder Ertus and Hakki Ture. The source that follows has details on the tribes of Adiyaman, Ture, Tatar, Babat, and Benek.]
The officials assured these warlords, known to have lengthy criminal records,[Failing to report let alone employing convicted criminals is a violation of Article 296 of the Turkish Criminal Code.] that the state would supply them with whatever arms they needed in order to fight the PKK. The warlords requested MG-3 machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, flame throwers, howitzerA howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent...
s, and police tanks. The brass refused the last two items, and compensated by increasing the wages of the village guards (militias) under the warlords' employ.
In September 1993, Ağar, Eken, Şahin, Ertuğrul Ogan and weapons trafficker Ertaç Tinar traveled to Israel over Zurich. Ağar contacted senior Israeli intelligence officials. After some bargaining, Eken took delivery of 50 million USD worth of weapons (though only half of it was paid for) from the ÖHD.
On paper, the weapons appeared to be donated from Tinar's company, Hospro. Some of them later went missing; 10 9mm Micro Uzi, 10 9mm Micro Uzis, 10 Super MGs, and 10 22-caliber Beretta revolvers with silencers, and an AL 50Hv rocket launcher. Three of the Berettas were found in the Susurluk crash. A criminal investigation was launched against the deputy chair of the ÖHD, İbrahim Şahinİbrahim Şahin is a Turkish police and state security official who served from 1976 to 1996. He led General Directorate of Security's special forces unit, the Special Operations Department and, following dismissal in 1996 for associating with ultra-nationalist drug trafficker and contact killer...
, but he suffered a traffic accident and claimed to have lost his memory.
On 3 November 1994, Çiller, Köksal, Eymür, and Ağar left for Israel to establish a co-operation agreement on counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing. This was the first meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries. Çiller and Ağar—not the MİT officials—privately talked to MOSSAD officials about equipment they needed to catch Öcalan, who was in Syria. A rich assortment of assassination weapons was delivered to the ÖHD on 15 November, including 2 12.7-caliber Beretta telescopic rifles, 8 pump shotguns, 280 automatic Uzis, 20 7.62mm Galli rifles, 100 silencers, 145 rifle telescopes.
Can DündarCan Dündar is a Turkish journalist, columnist and documentarian. He is one of the best known figures in Turkish media, described as possessing "impeccable republican credentials".-Biography:...
suggests that the weapons were used for political purposes other than to assassinate Öcalan.
The chairman of the Workers' PartyWorkers' Party is political party in Turkey led by Doğu Perinçek. İP has its roots in the Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey , Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey and Socialist Party...
, Doğu PerinçekDoğu Perinçek is a Turkish politician, leader of the Workers' Party , a scientific socialist organization, and former chairman of the Workers' Party . His first name Doğu means "East" in Turkish.-Personal life:...
, alleged that "the Mafia-Gladio dictatorship" was subordinate to Çiller and Ağar.
Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak said that Ağar's gang aimed to create a state within a stateState within a state is a political situation in a country when an internal organ, generally from the armed forces, intelligence agencies or police, does not respond to the civilian leadership....
, complete with a shadow army (the village guard systemVillage guards ) are paramilitaries. Originally they were set up and funded by the Turkish state in the mid-1980s under the direction of Turgut Özal. Their stated purpose was to act as a local militia in towns and villages, protecting against attacks and reprisals from the insurgents, terrorists...
), and intelligence organization, inside the police force. The MİT purged the gang in a crash that was passed off as an accident.
Causes of the scandal
According to Eymür, Susurluk was set in motion by the narcotics-related murder of two IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ians, Askar SimitkoAskar Simitko, alternative spellings use "Asgar" and/or "Smitko", was a Kurdish Iranian spy operating in Turkey. He was found tortured and shot dead by unknown persons in Istanbul....
and Lazım EsmaeiliLazım Esmaeili was a Kurdish Iranian spy operating in Turkey, who was found tortured and shot dead by unknown persons in Istanbul.Esmaelli was born 1945 in Urmia in Iran as a son of Selim....
in 1995. Simitko and Esmaeili were moles working for the MİT inside SAVAMA. However, the MİT was not aware of their drug smuggling, which resulted in their death due to a nonpayment of a "tribute".
The scandal surfaced after a car, carrying Abdullah Çatlı, Sedat BucakSedat Edip Bucak is a Turkish politician, a chieftain of Zaza Bucak tribe. He was involved in the Susurluk scandal.He born in Siverek. His father is İsmail Hakkı. He leads the Bucak tribe in Siverek, Şanlıurfa Province...
, Hüseyin Kocadağ, and Gonca Us, fatally crashed in Susurluk. The passengers were staying in a hotel, along with Mehmet Ağar. The assassination plan called for Ağar to be killed too. However, he was warned by Sami Hoştan so he remained at the hotel and told the rest to leave without him.
The Prosecutor's Report said that the passengers in the car were on their way to stage an assassination.
Turf war
The origins of the turf war date back to the reprisal operations in the 1980s against the militant Armenian organization, ASALAAsala may refer to:* Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization.* Asalah Nasri, Syrian singer* Al Asalah, a Salafist political party in Bahrain...
. Former president Kenan EvrenAhmet Kenan Evren was the seventh President of Turkey; a post he assumed by leading the 1980 military coup. He was also the last president to be born in the Ottoman Empire.- Biography :...
ordered the MİT to organize a special forcesSpecial forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
unit headed by Çatlı in order to attack members of the ASALA and the PKK. MİT’s Deputy Regional Director Metin Günyol formed the team, composed of Çatlı (alias Mehmet Sarol), Oral Çelik (Atilla Çelik) and Mehmet Şener (Durmuş Unutmaz). Others included former nationalist club leaders Ramiz Ongun, Enver Tortaş, Tevfik Esensoy, Bedri Ateş (Uğur Özgöbek), Rıfat Yıldırım, Türkmen Onur and Üzeyir Bayraklı.[This information was among twelve pages of the Inspection Board report that were classified; it can be found in folder 171 of the Ergenekon indictment's annex.]
After the operations, Çatlı was distanced from the MİT for engaging in criminal activities for personal gain. He drifted to the police force, led by Mehmet Ağar. Once a Counter-Terrorism department was established in the MİT by 1996, Çatlı's unit came to be perceived as a competitor.
Fikri Sağlar of the Republican People's PartyThe Republican People's Party is a centre-left Kemalist political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party of Turkey and is currently Main Opposition in the Grand National Assembly. The Republican People's Party describes itself as "a modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to...
(CHP) says Chief of Staff Doğan Güreş was behind much of the planning that led to the turf war between the MİT and the police force. (After Güreş stepped down from the military in August 1994, he joined Çiller's party, DYP.) Sağlar alleges that Güreş suggested the appointment of Nuri Gündeş as undersecretary of the MİT, but the president's office refused, so Çiller had Gündeş create a separate intelligence agency called the Public Security Headquarters ({{lang-tr|Kamu Güvenlik Başkanlığı}}, curiously shortening to KGB). Upon hearing news of unsavory activity from the KGB, president Süleyman DemirelSami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel , is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister seven times and was the ninth President of Turkey.-Life:Demirel was born in İslamköy, a town in Isparta Province...
had it dismantled. The MİT defended itself against Ağar and Gündeş by appointing their rival, Mehmet Eymür, who had dished the dirt on the former two in a 1987 report. Not to be outdone, Ağar hired Korkut EkenKorkut Eken is a Turkish security officer trained in special warfare. He became involved in the Susurluk scandal after some of his subordinates, notably Ayhan Çarkın, were convicted of extrajudicial killings.- Career :...
as someone who was knowledgeable about Eymür. The scandal happened only because of Çiller's incompetence, said Sağlar.
Mafias
The deputy chairman of ANAP, Yaşar Okuyan, broke down the mafia revenue (per annum, in trillion TL) as follows: 500 (drugs), 200 (gambling), 300 (money laundering). The total is equivalent to a black money market of $3.5 billion/year.
Three of the better-known gangs involved in scandal were the Kocaeli Gang (Hadi Özcan), the Söylemez Gang and the Yüksekova Gang.
A mafia gang under the leadership of the Söylemez brothers comprising police and army officers was discovered in summer 1996. The head of the gang is helicopter officer Faysal Söylemez, and among the top officials whose involvement in the gang are the former deputy chief of Istanbul Police, Deniz Gökçetin, and the former head of Istanbul Security branch, Sedat Demir.
According to government reports, the Söylemez Gang had arms, explosives, DM 186,500 and TL 155,200,000.
The Soylemez Brothers gang were caught with plans to raid the headquarters of the Bucak clan in Siverek, Urfa, the head of which is the DYP member of parliament (MP) Sedat Bucak, the only survivor of the crash. The blood feud between the Bucaks and the Söylemez gang is allegedly based on the control of arms and drugs trafficking in Turkey and particularly in the South East.
Drug trafficking
According to InterpolInterpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
, "Turkey is a major staging area and transportation route for heroin destined for European markets." The U.S. Drug Enforcement AdministrationThe Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
estimated the 1997 volume of the Turkish heroin traffic at 4–6 tons per month.
The point of contention of the Susurluk gangs was the European leg of the heroin transportation route, which passes through Turkey. One fifth of the black moneyBlack Money is a novel by US American mystery writer Ross Macdonald. Published in 1966, it is, according to Matthew Bruccoli and other critics, among the most powerful of all Ross Macdonald's novels...
is tapped by the gangs as "commission"; a market on the order of $80 billion (1997). According to Doğu Perinçek, the lure of heroin proved irresistible to the state, which suffered a $40–50 billion loss in trade with IraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
due to the U.N. embargo and the Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
.
The biggest drug cartel was led by Hüseyin BaybaşinHüseyin Baybaşin is a Kurdish drug lord. Once described as "Europe's Pablo Escobar", he is currently serving life sentence in the Netherlands convicted of drug smuggling charges.- Rise to leadership of a drug empire :...
. The U.K. National Crime SquadThe National Crime Squad was a British police organisation which dealt mainly with organised and major crimes. Formed in April 1998 after the amalgamation of six former Regional Crime Squads it merged on 1 April 2006 into the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The NCS reported directly to the Home...
estimated that 90% of the heroin in the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(25–35 tonnes annually in the late 1990s) was under their control until 2002, when it had a bloody falling-out with its partners in the PKK. He settled in the U.K. after becoming an informer for the HM Customs and Excise office to reveal what he knew, as someone who traveled with a diplomatic passport, about the involvement in heroin trafficking of senior Turkish politicians and officials.
Baybaşin said the most important state official involved in controlling the heroin trade was Şükrü Balcı, who was then chief of the Istanbul police.{{Rp|598}}
{{quote|After every single [bank] transaction, certainly half the money would go to the state. To us it was like a tax in exchange for the all round protection we were getting. If the money was confiscated or we were arrested, our government contacts would come and pick us up and say we were working for the state. Even in Europe, they were still protecting us. When I made my second trip to Europe that year, I saw with my own eyes that all the consulates were in the business. At every consulate, there was a staff member officially assigned to found cultural centres and Turkish schools for example, and we would donate money for them. The Turkish Cultural Association was completely funded by money from the drug trade.|Hüseyin Baybaşin|Bovenkerk and Yeşilgöz, 1998: 273-4{{Rp|598}}}}
Another narcotic that was trafficked in significant quantity was Captagon. A notable trafficker was a Mehmet Ali Yaprak of Gaziantep. Yaprak was ostensibly a businessman with a television channel (Yaprak TV), a radio station, and a tourism company (Hidayet Turizm). However, he also led a feared gang that smuggled Captagon over Syria and Saudi Arabia, according to the MİT report. His tourism company facilitated the trafficking. The report says that Yaprak donated 500 billion Lira[The Turkish lira was experiencing hyperinflation at the time, so it is difficult to translate into foreign currency. The donation was made towards the elections on 24 December 1995, when the interbank rate was 57,700 Lira/$US. At the beginning of the same year, the parity was 38,900 Lira/$US. The contribution is therefore on the order of $8.7 million to $13m.] to support Ağar's DYP campaign.
Upon learning of Yaprak's wealth, Çatlı and a team of 6–7 dressed in police uniform kidnapped Yaprak on 25 May 1996 and took him to a house in Siverek belonging to the Bucak clan. The kidnapping, motivated by the desire to know where the Captagon was coming from and cut Topal out of the loop, was directed by police in Ankara. Yaprak paid 10 million DM in ransom, however Çatlı and his fellow kidnappers received only a small portion of this. When they found out that they had been cheated, they fell out with their overlords in Ankara. They then kidnapped Yaprak a second time and interrogated him, sending one copy of the interrogation tape to Bucak and another to Eymür through MİT agent Müfit Sement. Leveraging the tapes, Çatlı worked out an agreement with Ankara.
After Topal's capture, his friend Haluk Koral called Eymür for help. Topal had also been kidnapped by police chief İbrahim Şahinİbrahim Şahin is a Turkish police and state security official who served from 1976 to 1996. He led General Directorate of Security's special forces unit, the Special Operations Department and, following dismissal in 1996 for associating with ultra-nationalist drug trafficker and contact killer...
priorly.
Yaprak was convicted in 1997 for involvement in the assassination of Gaziantep Bar lawyer Burhan Veli Torun, and released due to an amnesty law ({{lang-tr|Şartlı Salıverilme Yasası}}). In 2002, he was re-imprisoned after being caught with 5 million pills of Captagon. He died in prison, January 2004.
A market in the southeast town of LiceLice is a district of Diyarbakır Province in Turkey. The population is 9,644 as of 2010. It is located from the capital, Diyarbakır....
was destroyed by fire. Deputy Fikri Fikri Sağlar alleged that Lice was a center of drug processing, and that the factory was moved to ElazığElâzığ is a city in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey and the seat of Elâzığ Province. It has a population of331,479 according to the 2010 census, and the plain on which the city extends has an altitude of 1067 metres....
.
Gambling and money laundering
The proceeds from drugs entered the marketMoney laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
through casinos.
The "casino king" Ömer Lütfü TopalÖmer Lütfü Topal, sometimes spelled Lütfi, was a Turkish businessman, who was deeply involved in the Susurluk scandal...
was one of the key figures in this aspect of the scandal. Tanju Akça.. sold such specialties and traded with Ömer Lütfü TopalÖmer Lütfü Topal, sometimes spelled Lütfi, was a Turkish businessman, who was deeply involved in the Susurluk scandal...
with bribes of valuable materials. Allied with foreign guerrilla, now branched out to countries {no boundary to their patrolling.
One famous journalist wrote that many one-time nobodies suddenly became big politicians after entering the money laundering business, because the political parties were deeply involved in it (to finance their campaigns).
In response to public outrage, anti-money laundering legislation was passed in 1996, and regulations to implement it was put into place the next year.
Extrajudicial killings
Prime minister Çiller sanctioned the killing of businessmen who were suspected of lending financial support to the PKK.
The victims included "casino king" Ömer Lütfü TopalÖmer Lütfü Topal, sometimes spelled Lütfi, was a Turkish businessman, who was deeply involved in the Susurluk scandal...
, Savaş BuldanSavaş Buldan was a Turkish citizen of Kurdish descent involved in the Susurluk scandal.He was born in Yüksekova to Şükrü Buldan .Since 1979, he carried out activities in Yüksekova in line with the PKK....
, and Behçet CantürkBehçet Cantürk was a Turkish mob boss, who was involved in the Susurluk scandal.Behçet's father was named Reşit.Starting in 1975, Cantürk became a partner of some smugglers by providing money for them...
.
Medet SerhatMedet Serhat was a Turkish lawyer of Kurdish descent, from an aristocratic family of Igdir branch of widely spread Retkan tribe. He was involved in the Susurluk scandal...
, who was Behçet Cantürk's one time lawyer, but respected by Cantürk as an elder brother, also murdered although his business was legal, but he was a political figure.
Police chief Avcı said that the gangs fell into infighting after alleged PKK financiers Behçet Cantürk and Savaş Buldan were assassinated, as the gangs had completed their mission of dismantling the PKK's financial foundation.
The police force's Special Operations Department ({{lang-tr|Özel Harekat Dairesi}}, ÖHD) was held responsible for some of the lawless killings. Nuran Yorulmaz, the mother of a Susurluk convict, recently spoke out, said Veli Küçük had ordered his son Oğuz (of the ÖHD) to kill almost a 100 people. Oğuz Yorulmaz was killed on 29 May 2005 in a bar.
Brigadier General Veli Küçük, who was GiresunGiresun is the provincial capital of Giresun Province in the Black Sea Region of northeastern Turkey, about west of the city of Trabzon.-Etymology:...
's Gendarmerie Regional Commander, was said by the parliamentary report to be the head of the Gendarmerie's covert counter-terrorism and intelligence wing, JİTEM. Küçük denies JİTEM's existence to this day, although there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence to the contrary.
Azerbaijan coup plot
The prime minister's gang planned to depose AzerbaijanAzerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
president Haydar Aliyev on 13–17 March 1995.
According to the MİT report, prime minister Çiller gave minister Ayvaz Gökdemir, police chief Ağar, İbrahim Şahin, and Korkut Eken the green light to install Ebulfeyz Elçibey, as president.
A team of people, including Korkut Eken (MİT), İbrahim Şahin (Special Operations Department), Abdullah Çatlı (contract killer) and Ayhan Çarkın (special forces), traveled to Azerbaijan on 12 December 1994 in order to train a unit of 60 OMONOMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...
police officers for the coup. They were invited by OMON commander Rovshan Javadov, a KGB defector to the CIA, who also directed the abortive coup. The KGB/FSB and CIA closely monitored the events.
The coup was foiled after the MİT tipped off President Süleyman DemirelSami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel , is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister seven times and was the ninth President of Turkey.-Life:Demirel was born in İslamköy, a town in Isparta Province...
on 10 March 1995 and he called Aliyev.
Elçibey was an ideological ally of Alparslan Türkeş, who harbored aspirations of creating a Turkic stateTuranism, or Pan-Turanism, is a political movement for the union of all Turanian peoples. It implies not merely the unity of all Turkic peoples , but also the unification of a wider Turanid "race", also known as the controversial Uralo-Altaic "race," believed to include all peoples speaking...
stretching across the CaucasusThe Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. Türkeş' support of the coup attempt also provoked a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Azerbaijan, and the latter country officially requested a statement refuting the section of the report dealing with the attempted coup.
The Susurluk report said that Prime Minister Çiller's chief counselors, Acar Okan and Süleyman Kamil Yüceoral, were involved in the coup attempt. Susurluk Commission member Fikri Sağlar argued that the purpose of coup was to secure the narcotics route, which started in Afghanistan. Sağlar pointed out that Yüceoral was involved in paying general Rashid Dostum in Afghanistan from a slush fundA slush fund, colloquially, is an auxiliary monetary account or a reserve fund. However, in the context of corrupt dealings, such as those by governments or large corporations, a slush fund can have particular connotations of illegality, illegitimacy, or secrecy in regard to the use of this money...
.
Car crash
The scandal began after a Mercedes 600 SELThe Mercedes-Benz W140 was a series of flagship vehicles manufactured by the German automotive company Mercedes-Benz. The car premiered at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1991, with the first examples rolling off the production line on August 6, 1991. Short and long wheelbase sedans were offered...
owned by Bucak crashed into a truck near Çatalceviz, SusurlukSusurluk is a small town and a district of Balıkesir Province in northwestern Turkey. It is famous for its production soap and dairy products.İstanbul-İzmir road passes through Susurluk. Susurluk is known for its toasted sandwich with tomato paste and its bubbly ayran. The population is 23,995...
in the BalıkesirBalıkesir is the capital city of Balıkesir Province. Balıkesir is in the Marmara region of Turkey and has a population of 265,747 inhabitants. Old name is Karesi or Karasi.- History :...
province in Turkey. The crash took place on 3 November 1996 at around 19:25.
The victims of the crash, plus Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar, had been staying at the Onura Hotel hotel in Kuşadası. Kocadağ, Çatlı, and Us died, either immediately, or soon afterwards. Bucak escaped with a broken leg and fractured skull.
Evidence seized at the crash site indicated that Çatlı had been carrying:
- diplomatic credential
Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws...
s, given by the Turkish authorities
- a government-approved weapons permit.
- a fake passport in the name of Mehmet Özbay; the same alias used by Mehmet Ali Ağca
Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a...
.
- numerous 9mm Beretta
Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta is an Italian firearms manufacturer. Their firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and military purposes. It is also known for manufacturing shooting clothes and accessories. Beretta is the oldest active firearms manufacturer in the...
and Saddam (Beretta 92The Beretta 92 is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The model 92 was designed in 1972 and production of many variants in different calibers continues today...
) pistols, one .22 caliber Beretta with a silencer, and two Heckler & Koch MP5The Heckler & Koch MP5 is a 9mm submachine gun of German design, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch GmbH of Oberndorf am Neckar....
submachine gunA submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
s.
- two listening devices.
- a cache of narcotics.
- thousands of U.S. dollars.
According to an anonymous witness in the 2007 Ergenekon investigation, everyone initially survived the crash, which was precipitated by remotely disabling the brakes of the Mercedes. A three-person team came and snapped the necks of Us and Çatlı. Bucak was rescued by his guards, who also took his bag from the boot (trunk) and called Grey Wolf Haluk Kırcı. One of the first people to visit the site was mafia king Ali Yasak, better known as "Drej Ali", who took Çatlı's bag from the car, according to Tuncay GüneyTuncay Güney , code name "Ipek" , is a Turkish citizen who claims to have infiltrated the Turkish Gendarmerie's intelligence organization JITEM, Ergenekon, the Workers' Party, and the Gülen movement before being outed. He is subordinate to Mehmet Eymür, who was discharged from the National...
. Küçük refutes Güney's allegation that Yasak acted on his orders.
A prosecutor from Ilgin made similar allegations ten years ago.
Drug baron Sami Hoştan said that Bucak's guards were Ercan Ersoy and Ali Fevzi Bir (a.k.a. "Aliço"). The guards called Hoştan, who then called Bucak's friend Abdülgani Gızılkaya, and Veli Küçük, allegedly because the accident occurred in his Gendarmerie's precinct.[In Turkey, the Gendarmerie in responsible for policing inter-city areas; 92% of the country.] Driving to the scene of the accident, Hoştan saw Drej Ali. Hoştan said that Mehmet Eymür called while he, Çatlı, and Bucak were driving together, before the accident. Eymür asked Çatlı about the murder of MİT spy Tarık Ümit.
Eymür reportedly told Ümit's daughter, Hande Birinci, that her father worked with Korkut Eken (an adviser to Ağar) on the side and that he was assassinated by Ağar's men after he became disgusted by their corruption.
The truck driver, Hasan Gökçe, was held responsible for the accident and sentenced to three years in jail. He was bailed for 6.42 million TL. His truck (a 1968 Ford) was foreclosed after he failed to pay his taxes.
Former MHP deputy Kubilay Uygun said that he was introduced to Abdullah Çatlı and Hüseyin Kocadağ three days before the accident by a now-retired lieutenant general. Uygun says that he too has worked for the "deep stateThe Deep state is alleged to be a group of influential anti-democratic coalitions within the Turkish political system, composed of high-level elements within the intelligence services , Turkish military, security, judiciary, and mafia. The notion of deep state is similar to that of a "state within...
".
Official
The initial response of the Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar, who was allegedly one of the targets, was to undermine the investigation. First he denied that Çatlı was present, then he said that Çatlı was being delivered to the authorities, then he said a special investigation was not needed. He relented by allowing the sole survivor, Bucak, to speak.
{{quote|Since 1950, people having been talking about Counter-GuerrillaCounter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
s, gladiatorsOperation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
, this and that...for thirty years. Which has been shown to be true, to be evidenced, to be exposed? None of them.|Interior Minister Mehmet AğarMehmet Kemal Ağar is a Turkish former police chief, politician, government minister and leader of the Democratic Party.-Early years:...
on Operation GladioOperation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
and the Counter-GuerrillaCounter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
(29 June 1998)|}}
{{quote|We will follow the facts wherever they may lead. No-one can cover up Susurluk!|President Süleyman DemirelSami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel , is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister seven times and was the ninth President of Turkey.-Life:Demirel was born in İslamköy, a town in Isparta Province...
.}}
{{quote|They accuse the Turkish Republic of making use of illegal forces. The president, the police forces and even the Parliament are faced with murder allegations. Nobody has the right to suspect a great state...We face a situation where we are stabbing ourselves in the back. Even the Greeks wouldn't be able to do something like this to us|Deputy Prime Minister Tansu ÇillerTansu Penbe Çiller is a Turkish economist and politician. She was Turkey's first and only female Prime Minister.- Early career :She is the daughter of a Turkish governor of Bilecik province during the 1950s. She graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American...
likening detractors to traitors.}}
{{quote|Those who fire bullets or suffer their wounds in the name of this country, this nation, and this state will always be respectfully remembered by us.|Deputy Prime Minister Tansu ÇillerTansu Penbe Çiller is a Turkish economist and politician. She was Turkey's first and only female Prime Minister.- Early career :She is the daughter of a Turkish governor of Bilecik province during the 1950s. She graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American...
on contract killer Abdullah ÇatlıAbdullah Çatlı was a Turkish convicted drug trafficker, and contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla. He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party...
.}}
Çiller had her speeches written by her advisors at the Analitik Grubu, whose members included Mümtazer Türköne; allegedly an acquaintance of Çatlı from the Grey WolvesThe Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
leadership, and currently a columnist for ZamanZaman is a major, high-circulation daily newspaper in Turkey. It was founded in 1986 and was the first Turkish daily to go online in 1995. It contains national , international, business and other news...
. Nationalist Movement PartyThe Nationalist Movement Party , is a far-right political party in Turkey.In the 2002 general elections, the party had lost its 129 seats as it had won only 8.34% of the national vote...
(MHP) deputy Tuğrul Türkeş alleges that Türköne was subordinate to Çatlı.
Alparslan TürkeşAlparslan Türkeş was a Cypriot-born Turkish nationalist politician who was the founder and former president of the Nationalist Movement Party party...
, of the fascist MHP, also spoke out in defense of Çatlı. Meanwhile, party chairman Devlet Bahçeli vehemently denied any MHP involvement.
On 15 January 1998, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent EcevitMustafa Bülent Ecevit was a Turkish politician, poet, writer and journalist, who was the leader of Republican People's Party , later of the Democratic Left Party and four-time Prime Minister of Turkey.- Personal life :...
drew attention to skulduggery by JİTEM; the intelligence wing of the Gendarmerie.
Following the censorship of some pages of the report, HADEP Deputy Chairman Osman Özçelik drew attention to the involvement of state-sponsored gangs in ostensibly solving the Kurdish problem.
Civilian
Several demonstrations, some of which were proscribed, were organized in protest against the corruption and illegal activities uncovered by the investigations. A popular nation-wide event, known as
"Sürekli Aydınlık İçin Bir Dakika Karanlık" ("One minute's darkness for the sake of perpetual light"), was organized to protest the "satanic triangle" (a nationalist mafia leader, a high ranking police officer, and a member of parliament). Participants all around the country turned off the lights for a minute every night at 9pm. Later this was changed to flashing the lights. This practice lasted from 1–28 February 1997. The
Deputy Chair of the DYP, Mehmet Golhan, denounced the protestors as traitors, while prime minister Necmettin ErbakanNecmettin Erbakan was a Turkish engineer, academic, politician , who was the Prime Minister of Turkey from 1996 until 1997. He was Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister...
, of the Welfare PartyThe Welfare Party was an Islamist political party in Turkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal and Necmettin Erbakan in Ankara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties, Milli Nizam Partisi and Milli Selamet Partisi , which were banned from politics...
, called them "parasites and conspirators...who have nothing to do apart from intrigue".
Some commentators felt that the public reaction was mute compared with the weight of the crime, and thus constituted tacit approval. In other words, the accused concluded the populace believed they had indeed been working in the best interests of the state.
Investigation
Three reports were prepared in the wake of the scandal. The first was by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). Suspicions about the truthfulness of the MİT report led to the commissioning of a second report, by the chairman of the Prime Minister's Inspection Board ({{lang-tr|Başbakanlık Teftiş Kurulu Başkanı}}), Kutlu Savaş. 12 of the 124 pages of this report, dated 22 January 1998, were classified.[The missing parts of the Inspection Board report: {{cite news|url=http://www.taraf.com.tr/haber/14278.htm ]
|title=12 yasak sayfa
|work=Taraf- External links :*. Website of Taraf ....
|date=2008-08-09
|language=Turkish
}} Finally, a parliamentary investigation commission headed by Mehmet Elkatmış published a 350-page Susurluk Report in April 1997.
Addressing the Susurluk commission, CHP deputy Fikri Sağlar said that True Path PartyThe Democratic Party , abbreviated to DP, is a centre-right, conservative Turkish political party, established by Suleyman Demirel in 1983 as the Right Path Party...
leaders Tansu ÇillerTansu Penbe Çiller is a Turkish economist and politician. She was Turkey's first and only female Prime Minister.- Early career :She is the daughter of a Turkish governor of Bilecik province during the 1950s. She graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American...
and Mehmet AğarMehmet Kemal Ağar is a Turkish former police chief, politician, government minister and leader of the Democratic Party.-Early years:...
were at the heart of the scandal, and personally responsible for the "politics and economy becoming Mafia-like".
Sağlar attempted and failed to obtain the testimony of several people, including Teoman Koman, Necdet Üruğ, Veli Küçük, Tansu and Özer Çiller. When Tansu Çiller threatened to break the coalition government, prime minister Necmettin Erbakan prevented the Çillers' testimony from being taken.
Ağar kept mum, revealing only that he had acted in accordance with the NSC's plan (from 1993).
{{quote|If a super-prosecutor like di PietroAntonio Di Pietro is an Italian politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament, an Italian Senator, and Minister of the Prodi Government...
came forward in Turkey, tomorrow he would be dragged through Taksim SquareTaksim Square situated in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey, is a major shopping, tourist and leisure district famed for its restaurants, shops and hotels. It is considered the heart of modern Istanbul, with the central station of the Istanbul Metro network...
as an enemy of the nationAn enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state, such as treason. Describing individuals in this way is sometimes a manifestation of political repression. For example, an authoritarian regime may purport to maintain national security by describing social or political...
.|Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak on why the investigation failed (cf. mani puliteMani pulite was a nationwide Italian judicial investigation into political corruption held in the 1990s. Mani pulite led to the demise of the so-called First Republic, resulting in the disappearance of many parties. Some politicians and industry leaders committed suicide after their crimes were...
).}}
MİT report
{{wikisourcelang|tr|Susurluk Raporu (Sönmez Köksal)}}
The MİT report showed that Çatlı was at the Ankara Sheraton Hotel on 24 August 1996 in the company of a delegation from Brunei. He arrived at the hotel in a BMW with a false identification plate (06 KE 889). Though police had been informed about his whereabouts no one apprehended him because he was carrying a police ID card.
Inspection Board report
{{wikisourcelang|tr|Susurluk Raporu (Kutlu Savaş)}}
Among others, the Inspection Board contained the following allegations:
- The Bucak clan was involved in drug trafficking. Bucak was close to Ağar and state of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
governor Ünal Erkan.
- Passports and police identity cards were issue recklessly by the Ankara police.
- Several people, including MİT officers Nuri Gündeş and Mehmet Eymür, and the Inspection Board Chairman Kutlu Savaş communicated with the Prime Minister (Tansu Çiller) through her husband, Özer Çiller. Eymür also called Meral Akşener, Tolga Şakir Atik, Adil Öngen, and Ağar.
- Ömer Lütfü Topal's partner Ali Fevzi Bir is connected to Abdullah Çatlı, and policemen Oğuz Yorulmaz and Mustafa Altunok.
- Convicted murderer Mahmut Yıldırım, code name Yeşil (Green), was a MİT agent who had infiltrated the mafia. A cell phone belonging to Yeşil was found registered under Küçük's name. Küçük at the time said he talked to crime world leaders, such as Abdullah Çatlı, Sami Hoştan and Sedat Peker, only to get intelligence. However, the same phone had been called dozens of times by crime leaders, including Çatlı, and "casino king" Ömer Lütfü Topal. In response to a question from a journalist asking why the state employed criminals such as Yeşil, an anonymous senior MİT officer said that the MİT could think of no other way to infiltrate criminal gangs.
Parliamentary report
{{wikisourcelang|tr|Susurluk Raporu (TBMM)}}
During an investigation conducted by the parliamentary commission on the Susurluk incident, Hanefi Avci, the deputy chief of police intelligence, divulged connections and the names of senior officials, who were providing protection to gang leaders. Avci also revealed a connection of a questionable nature between Çakıcı and Mehmet Eymür of the MİT.
Elkatmış said that the Chief of the General Staff, İsmail Hakkı Karadayıİsmail Hakkı Karadayı is a retired Turkish general, who became the 20th Commander of the Turkish Armed Forces on 30 August 1993. He served between 1994 and 1998 as the 22nd Chief of the Turkish General Staff for a four-year term and was succeeded by General Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu.-References:...
, prevented him from obtaining Küçük's testimony, saying that there was no need.
The commission’s report maintained that the state organs used the Grey Wolves and that some state forces initiated the right-left conflicts in the 1970s.
Aftermath
The European market for heroin contracted as other drugs, esp. cocaine and ecstacy, took over.{{Rp|598}} In 2008, the Istanbul police seized 11 tons of drugs, 3.2 of which was heroin.
Ten years after the scandal, another gang called "Ergenekon" was discovered and tried. The chairman of the Susurluk commission, Mehmet Elkatmış, said that the two organizations were identical except in name. One of its key figures, Tuncay GüneyTuncay Güney , code name "Ipek" , is a Turkish citizen who claims to have infiltrated the Turkish Gendarmerie's intelligence organization JITEM, Ergenekon, the Workers' Party, and the Gülen movement before being outed. He is subordinate to Mehmet Eymür, who was discharged from the National...
, turned out to be subordinate to Eymür.
ÖHD deputy chief Şahin was detained in January 2009. Three maps in his possession led to the recovery of numerous weapons from scattered arms caches in Ankara. They turned out not to be the missing weapons from Susurluk.
Öcalan evaded assassination after a television reporter, Yalçın KüçükYalçın Küçük is a Turkish socialist writer, philosopher, economist, historian, Kurdolog, Sovietolog and media pundit, recognized for his historical studies on the late-Ottoman and Republican periods in the history of Turkey and Soviet economic development from a Marxist perspective and also his...
, publicized the plan on the PKK's TV channel, MED-TV. Küçük was also detained in the Ergenekon investigation.
Arrests and convictions
- Oğuz Yorulmaz. Arrested 13 January 1997 and sentenced to 4 years in prison.
- Sami Hoştan. Arrested 6 February 1998, released 4 May 1998.
- İbrahim Şahin. Convicted on 12 February 2001 to 6 years in prison.
- Korkut Eken. Convicted on 12 February 2001 to 6 years in prison.
- Alaattin Çakıcı. Arrested 16 August 1998; escaped justice with inside support.
Reforms
The new undersecretary, Şenkal Atasagun, turned the MİT around, relocating Eymür and Ataç abroad, out of harm's way. Eymür eventually found residence in McLean, VirginiaMcLean is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. The community had a total population of 48,115 as of the 2010 census....
; the seat of the CIA. He faces charges of revealing state secrets and spying for the United States.
Ataç too has been labeled a CIA asset.
A Draft Law on Struggling With Organized Crime and another draft on the legalization of JİTEM, allowing the GendarmerieThe Turkish Gendarmerie is a branch of the Turkish Armed Forces and it is responsible for the maintenance of the public order in areas that fall outside the jurisdiction of police forces , as well as assuring internal security and general border control along with carrying out other specific...
to legally carry out intelligence activities, were also prepared as consequences of this scandal.
Çiller ordered the casinos closed.
Resignations and promotions
Ağar resigned when it became obvious that Çatlı was a police collaborator. On the other hand, 44 senior officials who were under investigation were promoted, including:
- İbrahim Şahin. Former Special Warfare Department deputy chief.
- Behçet Oktay. Current Special Warfare Department deputy chief.
- Hasan Kocadağ (brother of Hüseyin Kocadağ, who was killed in the car crash). Became the Police Department's deputy chief.
- Mehmet Çağlar and Şükrü Gürler. Headmaster's assistants of Istanbul Etiler Police School.
- Bedri Yanar. Chief of security (body guards) for the Prime Minister.
Şahin was close to ülkücü circles and Çatlı in particular, having been pictured dancing with him in a wedding. Şahin had provided numerous hitmen (Çatlı included) with passports through the Nevşehir police. In 1984 he was sentenced to two years in prison for torturing numerous people, but his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court ({{lang-tr|Yargıtay}}) on a technicality, indicating the support of powerful actors behind the scenes.
Çakıcı's arrest
During Şenkal Atasagun's restructuring of the MİT, Yavuz Ataç was exiled to BeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
on 24 October 1997 for involvement with the mafia. The next month, Ataç handed ÇakıcıAlaattin Çakıcı is a former member of the ultra-nationalist organization Grey Wolves and one of the leading mobs of the Turkish underworld.- Early years :...
the red passport that allowed him to travel freely.
Çakıcı was arrested on 16 August 1998 in FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, carrying a diplomatic passport, after he allegedly threatened potential buyers of the Turkish Commerce Bank ({{lang-tr|Turk Ticaret Bankasi}}) over the telephone. He was extradited, imprisoned, then released. On the day of his final arrest, 3 May 2004, he escaped to ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
on a visa given to him at the Italian consulate.{{Rp|599}}
CHP deputy Fikri Sağlar alleges that Çakıcı deliberately chose to be apprehended in France, a country with a developed judicial systemIn France, judges are considered civil servants exercising one of the sovereign powers of the state, and, accordingly, only French citizens are eligible for judgeship. France's independent judiciary enjoys special statutory protection from the executive branch...
, and that he even contacted a lawyer beforehand. Çakıcı was allegedly in possession of incriminating information about other government officials at the time of his arrest. Turkey's ambassador to France at the time was Sönmez Köksal—the undersecretary of the MİT until February 1998.
Ataç had originally planned to give the passport to Mehmet Can Kulaksızoğlu, the fugitive leader of the Turkish Revenge BrigadeThe Turkish Revenge Brigade is an ultra-nationalist militant organisation that has used violence against those who are perceived to be insulting Turkey. In the 1970s, TİT gained notoriety during political clashes and are believed to be responsible for over one thousand deaths during this period...
and suspected mastermind behind the assassination attempt on Human Rights AssociationThe Human Rights Association is an NGO for advancing Human rights in Turkey, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara.- History :...
chairman Akın Birdal.
Çakıcı's arrest was timed to coincide with the wedding of Interior Minister Mehmet AğarMehmet Kemal Ağar is a Turkish former police chief, politician, government minister and leader of the Democratic Party.-Early years:...
's son. Presidents EvrenAhmet Kenan Evren was the seventh President of Turkey; a post he assumed by leading the 1980 military coup. He was also the last president to be born in the Ottoman Empire.- Biography :...
and DemirelSami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel , is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister seven times and was the ninth President of Turkey.-Life:Demirel was born in İslamköy, a town in Isparta Province...
were invited. Upon being informed of the arrest, Demirel changed his mind at the last minute about attending. The Çakıcı operation was not publicly revealed until 20:30, when the marriage ceremony took place.
External links
{{wikisourcelang|tr|Susurluk Raporu}}
- Official reports (HTML), hosted by Mustafa Akgül of Bilkent University
İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, commonly referred to as Bilkent University or Bilkent, is the first private, nonprofit university in Turkey with the fundamental aim of creating a center of excellence in higher education and research...
. {{tr}}
- Official reports (DOC), hosted by Can Dündar
Can Dündar is a Turkish journalist, columnist and documentarian. He is one of the best known figures in Turkish media, described as possessing "impeccable republican credentials".-Biography:...
. {{tr}}
- Susurluk Dosyası, Ankara University
Ankara University is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in the Turkish Republic....
{{tr}}
- Susurluk Dosyası, Radikal
Radikal is a daily Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. It has been published since 1997 by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group ....
{{tr}}
- The missing parts of the Inspection Board report: {{cite news|url=http://www.taraf.com.tr/haber/14278.htm
|title=12 yasak sayfa
|work=Taraf- External links :*. Website of Taraf ....
|date=2008-08-09
|language=Turkish
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Susurluk Scandal}}