12-10-2009, 01:38 AM
Who in the world is Tuncay Guney?
Immigration
In Turkey, the former reporter was embroiled in a political trial he insists will lead to his murder if he’s forced to return. In Cairo, he was accused of being an Israeli spy. In Toronto, Mr. Guney presents himself as a rabbi seeking refugee status, though the Jewish community has rejected him. ‘Tuncay Guney has 1,000 faces. Only God knows which is the real one’
NICHOLAS BIRCH AND TU THANH HA
Nicholas Birch is a freelance reporter
January 9, 2009
ISTANBUL and TORONTO — In his native Turkey, he is a key figure in one of the country’s biggest political trials, a convoluted, explosive tale of assassinations and conspiracy.
He has also figured large in a Cairo court, where he was alleged to be an operative for Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, who recruited a Canadian to spy for Israel on Arab bank customers.
Here in Canada, Tuncay Guney presents himself as a rabbi, with hat and black coat – though the Jewish community says he’s not one of their own.
A cagey, unassuming-looking 36-year-old with shaky English, the former reporter left a path of intrigue and controversy on three continents before turning up in Toronto as a refugee claimant.
“Going back to Turkey would mean arranging a date with the Angel of Death,” he said in an e-mail in Turkish.
For the past six months, few days have gone without him being on the front page of a Turkish newspaper.
He is the informant behind the closely watched Ergenekon trial, in which leading intellectuals and military officers are accused of attempting to overthrow the Muslim-rooted AK party that governs Turkey.
United only by their hatred of the AK, the 85 right-wing nationalists and hard-line secularists in the dock are accused of being part of a secret organization called Ergenekon and charged with plotting high-level killings to destabilize society and force army intervention.
“I sparked a revolution in my country. The masks fell,” Mr. Guney said in his e-mail. “If I talk, everything will change.”
The case began in 2001 when police in Turkey pulled him in for selling a stolen car.
The man was a nondescript sort: a failed journalist with a primary school certificate and a thick Anatolian accent. Then he began to talk.
“I’ve never seen anybody like Tuncay Guney,” recalled Ahmet Ihtiyaroglu, the organized-crime interrogator who took over from his gobsmacked colleagues in small crimes. “It was as if somebody had sent him in to reveal everything.”
The police called in investigative magistrates. But out on bail, Mr. Guney fled to the United States.
He left behind 140 pages of depositions and six boxes of documents – some top-secret – that hold a prime place in the indictment. Mr. Guney is mentioned more than 400 times in the indictment and named as a “suspect on the run.”
In his deposition, Mr. Guney said he worked for General Veli Kucuk, a former military intelligence chief suspected in dozens of homicides.
This week, the trial heard that his aliases included Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosbag and Tuncay Bubay.
Those names had cropped up before, in a spy case against an Egyptian-Canadian CIBC employee in Toronto.
In 2007, a Cairo court sentenced Mohamed el-Attar to 15 years in prison after he was arrested in Egypt while visiting family. The prosecution said that Mr. el-Attar worked for Mossad, while in Turkey and Canada, and had been recruited by Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosba and Tuncay Bubay.
According to Newsweek’s Turkish edition, a former housemate said Mr. Guney once introduced Mr. el-Attar to him as a friend. The Israeli consulate said the Mossad allegations were “madness.”
Daniel is also the name Mr. Guney uses in his Toronto life – as rabbi Daniel T. Guney.
Jacob House, the congregation he says he represents, appears to be little more than a website and a postal box.
The Toronto Board of Rabbis and the Canadian Jewish Congress say Mr. Guney is not a member of the community and appears to be associated with the Messianic Judaism movement, evangelical Christians who try to convert Jews.
According to the Turkish media, Mr. Guney became acquainted with evangelical Christians while in New York. When his asylum demand in the United States was rejected, a Kurdish convert drove him to Canada in 2004.
“People let him enter their lives because they felt sorry for him. He always appeared a poor, weak character,” says one Turkish journalist who first met him in 1994.
“Tuncay Guney has 1,000 faces. Only God knows which is the real one,” said Hasan Yilmaz, editor of the Toronto-based newspaper CanadaTurk.
Mr. Guney, meanwhile, is in no hurry to be back where he triggered so many shockwaves.
“The state is not in control of the streets or the prisons. Look at the seniority of the Ergenekon suspects and what they did. Do you think they would permit me to live in liberty or in jail?”
Source: www.theglobeandmail.com, January 9, 2009
Immigration
In Turkey, the former reporter was embroiled in a political trial he insists will lead to his murder if he’s forced to return. In Cairo, he was accused of being an Israeli spy. In Toronto, Mr. Guney presents himself as a rabbi seeking refugee status, though the Jewish community has rejected him. ‘Tuncay Guney has 1,000 faces. Only God knows which is the real one’
NICHOLAS BIRCH AND TU THANH HA
Nicholas Birch is a freelance reporter
January 9, 2009
ISTANBUL and TORONTO — In his native Turkey, he is a key figure in one of the country’s biggest political trials, a convoluted, explosive tale of assassinations and conspiracy.
He has also figured large in a Cairo court, where he was alleged to be an operative for Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, who recruited a Canadian to spy for Israel on Arab bank customers.
Here in Canada, Tuncay Guney presents himself as a rabbi, with hat and black coat – though the Jewish community says he’s not one of their own.
A cagey, unassuming-looking 36-year-old with shaky English, the former reporter left a path of intrigue and controversy on three continents before turning up in Toronto as a refugee claimant.
“Going back to Turkey would mean arranging a date with the Angel of Death,” he said in an e-mail in Turkish.
For the past six months, few days have gone without him being on the front page of a Turkish newspaper.
He is the informant behind the closely watched Ergenekon trial, in which leading intellectuals and military officers are accused of attempting to overthrow the Muslim-rooted AK party that governs Turkey.
United only by their hatred of the AK, the 85 right-wing nationalists and hard-line secularists in the dock are accused of being part of a secret organization called Ergenekon and charged with plotting high-level killings to destabilize society and force army intervention.
“I sparked a revolution in my country. The masks fell,” Mr. Guney said in his e-mail. “If I talk, everything will change.”
The case began in 2001 when police in Turkey pulled him in for selling a stolen car.
The man was a nondescript sort: a failed journalist with a primary school certificate and a thick Anatolian accent. Then he began to talk.
“I’ve never seen anybody like Tuncay Guney,” recalled Ahmet Ihtiyaroglu, the organized-crime interrogator who took over from his gobsmacked colleagues in small crimes. “It was as if somebody had sent him in to reveal everything.”
The police called in investigative magistrates. But out on bail, Mr. Guney fled to the United States.
He left behind 140 pages of depositions and six boxes of documents – some top-secret – that hold a prime place in the indictment. Mr. Guney is mentioned more than 400 times in the indictment and named as a “suspect on the run.”
In his deposition, Mr. Guney said he worked for General Veli Kucuk, a former military intelligence chief suspected in dozens of homicides.
This week, the trial heard that his aliases included Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosbag and Tuncay Bubay.
Those names had cropped up before, in a spy case against an Egyptian-Canadian CIBC employee in Toronto.
In 2007, a Cairo court sentenced Mohamed el-Attar to 15 years in prison after he was arrested in Egypt while visiting family. The prosecution said that Mr. el-Attar worked for Mossad, while in Turkey and Canada, and had been recruited by Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosba and Tuncay Bubay.
According to Newsweek’s Turkish edition, a former housemate said Mr. Guney once introduced Mr. el-Attar to him as a friend. The Israeli consulate said the Mossad allegations were “madness.”
Daniel is also the name Mr. Guney uses in his Toronto life – as rabbi Daniel T. Guney.
Jacob House, the congregation he says he represents, appears to be little more than a website and a postal box.
The Toronto Board of Rabbis and the Canadian Jewish Congress say Mr. Guney is not a member of the community and appears to be associated with the Messianic Judaism movement, evangelical Christians who try to convert Jews.
According to the Turkish media, Mr. Guney became acquainted with evangelical Christians while in New York. When his asylum demand in the United States was rejected, a Kurdish convert drove him to Canada in 2004.
“People let him enter their lives because they felt sorry for him. He always appeared a poor, weak character,” says one Turkish journalist who first met him in 1994.
“Tuncay Guney has 1,000 faces. Only God knows which is the real one,” said Hasan Yilmaz, editor of the Toronto-based newspaper CanadaTurk.
Mr. Guney, meanwhile, is in no hurry to be back where he triggered so many shockwaves.
“The state is not in control of the streets or the prisons. Look at the seniority of the Ergenekon suspects and what they did. Do you think they would permit me to live in liberty or in jail?”
Source: www.theglobeandmail.com, January 9, 2009
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
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"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.