Turkish Counter-Guerilla

[Magda Hassan]

Counter-Guerrilla




Seal of the Office of Defense Cooperation, Turkey. The 13 stars represent the original 13 states, and indicate a United States Department of Defense organization (see seal).[1]


The Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio; a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative by the United States. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion. The goal was soon expanded to subverting communism within Turkey.
The Counter-Guerrilla initially operated out of the Turkish Armed Forces' Tactical Mobilization Group (Turkish: Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu, or STK). In 1967, the STK was renamed to the Special Warfare Department (Turkish: Özel Harp Dairesi, ÖHD). In 1994, the ÖHD became the Special Forces Command (Turkish: Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı, ÖKK).
The military accepts that the ÖKK is tasked with subverting a possible invasion, though it denies that the unit is Gladio's "counter-guerrilla", i.e., that it has engaged in "Black Operations".[2][3] After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Counter-Guerrilla were used to fight the militant PKK, which has since its inception been regarded as a major threat.[4] General Kemal Yılmaz, then chief of the special forces, said on 3 December 1990 that "The department is still active in security operations against armed members of the PKK in Turkey's southeastern provinces".[5]
Its existence was revealed in 1971 by survivors of the Ziverbey incident, and officially on 26 September 1973 by prime minister Bülent Ecevit. Twenty days later he was shot at; he survived. The next prime minister who openly talked about such matters, Turgut Özal, also narrowly evaded an assassination attempt.[6] The subject has been broached by parliament at least 27 times since 1990, however no successful investigation has taken place.[7] Deputies of the incumbent party in any given administration always voted in dissent.[6]
In Turkey there is a popular belief that the Counter-Guerrilla have exerted great influence over the country's Cold War history, most notably for instigating the military coups of 1971, and 1980.[8]

Raison d'être

Anatolia's geostrategic value has long attracted players of the New Great Game. After the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences in 1945, Stalin sent troops to the Turkish border with his sights set on the Dardanelles. In 1946, the Soviet Union sent two diplomatic notes concerning the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits, arguing that its terms were unfavorable to the Soviets. Ankara dismissed the notes, and the U.S. also expressed its dissatisfaction with Soviet demands, stating that "Should the Straits become the object of attack or threat of attack by an aggressor, the resulting situation would constitute a threat to international security and would clearly be a matter for action on the party of the Security Council of the United Nations."[9]
After Britain declared on 21 February 1947 its inability to provide financial aid (though she would establish the Central Treaty Organization a decade later), Turkey turned towards the United States, who drew up the Truman Doctrine, pledging to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures".[10] $100 million was appropriated two months after U.S. Congress ratified the Truman Doctrine on 12 March 1947. This figure was raised to $233 million by 1950, after Turkey contributed a brigade of about 5000 men to the U.N. forces in Korean War.[11] In August 1947, the Joint American Military Mission for Aid to Turkey (JAMMAT) was established in Ankara under the authority of the American ambassador.
On 5 October 1947, a delegation of senior Turkish military officials traveled to the United States to establish the military framework of the co-operation agreement.[12][13]
In December 1947, United States National Security Council Directive 4-A "secretly authorised the CIA to conduct these officially non-existent programs and to administer them" in such a way that "removed the U.S. Congress and public from any debate over whether to undertake psychological warfare abroad". A few months later, the NSC replaced directive 4-A with directive 10/2, creating the Office of Policy Coordination (initially euphemistically called the "Office for Special Projects"), the covert action arm of the CIA. The OPC's charter unambiguously called for "propaganda, economic warfare; preventative direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance movements, guerrillas and refugee liberations [sic] groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world." In the words of career intelligence officer William Corson, "no holds were barred… all the guys on the top had said to put on the brass knuckles and go to work."[14]
After joining NATO in 18 February 1952,[15] Turkey signed a Military Facilities Agreement on 23 June 1954, paving the way for a large scale American military presence. With a staff of 1200 by 1959,[16][17] JAMMAT was the largest among United States European Commands (USEUCOM), and also the world's largest military assistance and advisory group by 1951.[18] JAMMAT was renamed to Joint United States Military Mission for Aid to Turkey (JUSMMAT) in 1958, and the Office of Defense Cooperation Turkey (ODC-T) (Turkish: ABD Savunma İşbirliği Ofisi) on 1 May 1994.[19][20]

1952–1970


The command structure of the Counter-Guerrilla, as suggested in Field Manual 31-15: Operations Against Irregular Forces. The Host Country in this case is Turkey.


With the consent of the National Defense Supreme Council (Turkish: Milli Savunma Yüksek Kurulu), brigadier general Daniş Karabelen founded the Tactical Mobilization Group (Turkish: Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu, or STK) on 27 September 1952.[2][21] Karabelen was one of sixteen soldiers (including Turgut Sunalp, Ahmet Yıldız, Alparslan Türkeş, Suphi Karaman, and Fikret Ateşdağlı) who had been sent to the United States in 1948 for training in special warfare. These people were to form the core of the Special Warfare Department (Turkish: Özel Harp Dairesi, or ÖHD).[22] It has been said that the training also entailed an element of CIA recruitment.[23] Some full generals that later ran the department were Adnan Doğu, Aydın İlter, Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, İbrahim Türkgenci, Doğan Bayazıt, and Fevzi Türkeri.[22] Karabelen picked Ismail Tansu as his right-hand man, and they expanded the STK in a cellular fashion. They filled the ranks, mostly with reserve officers, inducted them with an oath, and educated them before allowing them to return to civilian life. The officers were given no weapons, funding, or immediate task.[22] The recruitment was more concentrated in the east, where an invasion was most likely to occur.[24]
Books used to educate the officers included:

• David Galula's famous Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice. Translated in Turkish as Ayaklanmaları Bastırma Harekâtı: Teori ve Pratik per orders from then chief of the ÖHD, major general M. Cihat Akyol.[25]
  
• U.S. Army Field Manual 31-15: Operations Against Irregular Forces. Translated into Turkish as Sahra Talimnamesi 31-15: Gayri Nizami Kuvvetlere Karşı Harekat, and put into practice on 25 May 1964 per orders from general Ali Keskiner.[26][27]
  
• Senior infantry colonel Cahit Vural's Gerillaya Giriş (1972).[28]
  

Later, the generals formed the Turkish Resistance Organization to counter the Greek EOKA.[29] Operating under the authority of the Chief of the General Staff, the STK was quartered in the JUSMMAT (Turkish: Amerikan Askerî Yardım Heyeti) building in Bahçelievler, Ankara.[30] Ismail Tansu says that the American headquarters were facing the old Gülhane building, and that the STK's headquarters were in a villa near Kolej, Kızılay.[31] He also said that he used to meet soldiers from the J3 Operations Directorate a few times a week, alternating between their bases. Some of his associates were colonel Latent, captain Berger, and major Hill.[29]
In the 1960s, Türkeş established the "civilian" Associations for Struggling with Communism (Turkish: Komünizm ile Mücadele Dernekleri)[23][32] and funded the far-right National Movement Party (Turkish: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP).[17] These formed the core of future ultra-nationalist militants, used by the Counter-Guerrilla in destabilizing events.
The CIA employed people from the far right, such as Pan-Turkist SS-member Ruzi Nazar (father of Sylvia Nasar),[17] to train the Grey Wolves (Turkish: Ülkücüler),[33] the youth wing of the MHP. Nazar was a Turkoman born near Tashkent who had deserted the Red Army to join the Nazis during World War II in order to fight on the Eastern Front for the creation of a Turkistan.[34][35] After Germany lost the war, some of its spies found haven in the U.S. intelligence community. Nazar was such a person, and he became the CIA's station chief to Turkey.[36]
The STK became the ÖHD in 1967.[21]

1970–today


Search for funding

During the 1970s, the Special Warfare Department was run by general Kemal Yamak. In his recently-released memoirs, he stated that the United States had set aside ~$1m worth of support; part munitions, part money. This arrangement continued until 1973-4, when Yamak decided the munitions did not meet the department's needs. The Americans allegedly retorted that they were footing the bill, and had right of decision. Yamak left the meeting and expressed his concerns to the Chief of General Staff, Semih Sancar, and the agreement was subsequently annulled.[22][37]
It was only when Yamak asked prime minister Bülent Ecevit for an alternative means of funding did Ecevit became aware of the operation's existence; the other members of the cabinet remained in the dark. Ecevit suggested that the organization seek support from Europe. Yamak contacted generals from the United Kingdom, followed by France. The commander of the Turkish army at the time, General Semih Sancar, informed him the U.S. had financed the unit as well as the National Intelligence Organization since the immediate post-war years.

Post-USSR

In the early 90s, Turkey and America were at loggerheads over the Kurdish issue. Turkish generals, esp. Eşref Bitlis, opposed U.S. plans to create a separate Kurdish state. In order to reduce U.S. influence over the Turkish military,[38] chief of staff Doğan Güreş[39] restructured the ÖHD and renamed it to the Special Forces Command (Turkish: Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı, or ÖKK) in 1992.[40] The ÖKK, whose 7000+ recruits are colloquially called "red berets" (Turkish: Bordo Bereliler), combats terrorism and protects the chiefs of staff and the president on trips abroad.[40] Similarly, civilian counter-guerrillas are collectively named the White Forces (Turkish: Beyaz Kuvvetler).[41]
In 1993, the parliament formed a commission (Turkish: Faili Meçhul Cinayetleri Araştırma Komisyonu) to investigate the numerous unsolved murders believed to be perpetrated by the Counter-Guerrilla. Their report enumerated 1797 such deaths; 316 in 1992 and 314 in 1993 alone. General Güreş contacted the Speaker of Parliament, Hüsamettin Cindoruk, to stop the investigation in order to prevent the outing of his men.[42] Meanwhile, State Security Court prosecutor Nusret Demiral ordered the police force not to co-operate with the parliamentary commission in solving the crimes.[43]
With the ejection of Gladio from the military under the next chief of general staff (İsmail Hakkı Karadayı),[38][44] Gladio ensconced in the Turkish police force's[45] Special Operations Department (Turkish: Özel Harekat Dairesi)[30] using the Gülen movement.[38][46][47][48][49] Sources close the Gülen movement dispute the allegation, saying that the Turkish Gladio is the Ergenekon network (despite the fact that its alleged members include leftists who have been tortured by the Counter-Guerrilla).[50] Other sources say that Ergenekon is a splinter off Gladio that borrows its structure,[51] but has a Eurasian rather than Western agenda.[52] With regard to allegations of Fethullah Gülen's connection to the CIA, it is relevant to note that George Fidas and Graham Fuller of the CIA petitioned on his behalf to obtain an alien worker visa (accepted on appeal).[53][54]
Former prime minister Mesut Yılmaz said that the alleged illegal gang now in the police force was formerly in the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). In particular, Yılmaz singled out MİT's Counter-Terrorism Department, led by Mehmet Eymür and created on then prime minister Tansu Çiller's orders.[55]
Turkey maintains strong military ties with the U.S., through the ODC-T, whose leader is "the single point of contact with the Turkish General Staff regarding all United States military organizations and activities in Turkey".[56] As of 2008, this position is held by major general Eric J. Rosborg.[57] Since 1993, the chiefs of the ODC-T have been U.S. Air Force generals.[58] The offices of the ODC-T are located at Kirazlıdere Mevkii, İsmet İnönü Bulvarı № 94, Balgat, 06100 Ankara.[19]

Incidents


Istanbul pogrom

Main article: Istanbul Pogrom
In 1955, members of the ÖHD participated in planning the Istanbul Pogrom, which promoted both the state's secret policy of Turkification, and the subversion of Communism.[59] At the time, it was believed to have been orchestrated by the Democratic Party.

Bloody Sunday

Main article: Bloody Sunday (1969)
A group of right-wing thugs beat up leftists on 16 February 1969 who were protesting the arrival of the United States Sixth Fleet to Turkey.

Coups of 1971 and 1980

Main articles: 1971 Turkish coup d'état and 1980 Turkish coup d'état
On 10 March 1971, the CIA sent the State and Defense departments a cable stating that the Turkish high command had convened that day resolving to carry out a coup.[60][61]
The 1971 right-wing coup on 12 March was executed to forestall a left-wing coup originally planned to take place just three days earlier. This was made possible after the 9 March junta was exposed by National Intelligence Organization (MİT) agent Mahir Kaynak. Immediately after the coup, leftist intellectuals and members of the 9 March junta were interrogated in a building allegedly belonging to the MİT (see the next section). One member of the 9 March junta, general Talat Turhan, was interrogated by the chief of the MİT, Eyüp Ozalkus. Turhan expended much effort on exposing the Counter-Guerrilla after his release.[62]
It has been alleged that the oppositional juntas were in fact two facets of the organization.[63]
The counter-guerrilla engaged in sporadic acts of domestic terror throughout the 1970s, serving as a pretext for yet another coup in 1980. By the time it took place, the second coup was seen as necessary by the unwitting public to restoring peace. It was also encouraged by parliament deputies, many of which had joined the Counter-Guerrilla in their youth.[64]
With this coup firm steps were taken to bring the country under the military's heel. A stifling constitution was drafted, a Supreme Education Council was established to bring intellectuals into line, and the National Security Council was beefed up to do the same for politicians.[65]
After having served his role in instigating the 1980 coup, Alparslan Türkeş was jailed by the high command. In fact, General Madanoğlu intended to execute him by a firing squad, but his friend Ruzi Nazar (of the CIA) intervened.[66]

Ziverbey villa

After the 1971 coup d'état, the Ziverbey villa in Erenköy, Istanbul was used to brutally interrogate people perceived as posing a communist threat. The masterminds behind Ziverbey were generals Memduh Ünlütürk, Faik Türün and Turgut Sunalp. The latter two were Korean War veterans who had served in the Operations Department (Turkish: Harekât Dairesi). The interrogation techniques they used in Ziverbey were inspired by what they had seen done to Korean and Chinese POWs during the Korean War.[67] Prisoners were bound and blinded.

Our interrogation technique was "special". Our men were special... An incorrigible communist alleged that she was raped with a truncheon. Pardon my saying so, but would our 20-21 year old stout boys need a truncheon? It defies all logic. As far as I know, the prisoners were merely slapped around.

—Turgut Sunalp, Nokta, 3 November 1985 (the slapping references Eyüp Ozalkus's treatment of Talat Turhan)[67]

Intellectuals such as İlhan Selçuk (of the 9 March junta) and Uğur Mumcu were tortured there. Several Ziverbey victims confirmed that the interrogators introduced themselves as "Counter-Guerrillas", above the law, and entitled to kill.[68][69][70][5] Under duress to write an apologetic statement, Selçuk famously revealed his plight using a modified acrostic which decrypted to "I am under torture". The key letter was the first of the penultimate word of each sentence in his statement.
Another prisoner, outspoken liberal Murat Belge, says that he was tortured there by Veli Küçük, who later founded JITEM and Hezbollah (Turkey) to counter the Kurdistan Workers' Party.[71] Küçük says he could not be responsible since he was stationed in Şırnak and has been charged with colluding with another Ziverbey victim, İlhan Selçuk (see Ergenekon).[72]
The activist film director Yılmaz Güney was also present. A friend of his in the MİT had tried to prevent him from being captured by telling his superiors that Güney was also a spy, but the ruse failed. A MİT officer who was present, Mehmet Eymür, said Güney was treated well in return for his co-operation.[73]
General Yamak denied that the ÖHD was involved, and dismissed any notion of a "counter-guerrilla".[74]
Ziverbey is notable for:

• being the first time the term "Counter-Guerrilla" was mentioned to anyone who was not already a member.
  
• revealing the fact that the counter-guerrilla co-operated with the MİT.
  

Kızıldere massacre

On 30 March 1972 special forces raided Kızıldere village in Niksar district, Tokat province and killed the 10 young men who had kidnapped three foreign hostages and kept them in Kızıldere. The victims included Mahir Çayan (THKP-C), Hüdai Arıkan (Dev-Genç), Cihan Alptekin (THKO), taxi driver Nihat Yılmaz, teacher Ertan Saruhan, farmer Ahmet Atasoy, Sinan Kazım Özüdoğru (Dev-Genç), student Sabahattin Kurt, Ömer Ayna (THKO) and lieutenant Saffet Alp. The three hostages (two British and one Canadian citizen) they held in an attempt to prevent the execution of three student leaders (Deniz Gezmiş, Hüseyin İnan and Yusuf Aslan) were also killed.[75]
Although General Yamak denied it,[76] an active participant, hitman Metin Kaplan said that the ÖHD was responsible. He mentioned talking to general Memduh Ünlütürk (himself a Counter-Guerrilla, and infamous participant of the Ziverbey villa incident) about what to do with the Communist inmates of Maltepe prison, who were planning to escape. On the advice of two U.S. generals, they let the prisoners escape, and then take hostage three NATO officers at Ünye. This created the pretext for their assassination.[77]
MIT double agents Mehmet Eymür and Hiram Abas, working for the CIA, also participated in the Kızıldere massacre. After being discharged from the MIT, Eymür moved to McLean, Virginia; the seat of the CIA. In Turkey he faces charges of divulging state secrets and spying for the United States.[78]

Taksim Square massacre

Main article: Taksim Square massacre
On 1 May 1977 the trade union confederation DİSK held a rally on Taksim Square, Istanbul with half a million participants. Unidentified people shot at the crowd and killed 36 people. The perpetrators were never caught.[79] Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, and member of the leftist Republican People's Party, declared to then President Fahri Koruturk that he suspected the Counter-Guerrilla's involvement in the massacre.[80] According to Ecevit, the shooting lasted for twenty minutes, yet several thousand policemen on the scene did not intervene. This mode of operation recalls the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires, when the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (a.k.a. "Triple A"), founded by José Lopez Rega (a P2 member), opened fire on the left-wing Peronists.
Moreover, Ecevit himself barely survived an assassination attempt twenty days after he publicly mentioned the possibility of a secret organization being behind the massacre.[79]
Ankara's Deputy State Attorney Dogan Ōz then investigated on relationship between Alparslan Türkeş's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) the Special Warfare Department and violent incidents of the 1970s. Dogan Ōz's report stated that "Military and civilian security forces are behind all this work." It also stated that the National Intelligence Organization was complicit, and that "all these activities [were] guided by MHP members and cadres." The attorney Dogan Ōz was assassinated on March 24, 1978. İbrahim Çiftçi, a member of the Grey Wolves, confessed to the crime, but his conviction was overturned by the military judicial system.[80]

16 March massacre

Seven students (Hatice Özen, Cemil Sönmez, Baki Ekiz, Turan Ören, Abdullah Şimşek, Hamit Akıl and Murat Kurt) were killed and 41 were injured at Istanbul University's Faculty of Pharmacy on 16 March 1978. The assailants were members of the Grey Wolves. The lawsuit was canceled in 2008 due to the statute of limitation.[81][82]

Bahçelievler massacre

Main article: Bahçelievler massacre
A group of nationalists under the leadership of Abdullah Çatlı killed seven leftist students on 9 October 1978. Çatlı was convicted in absentia.[83]

Kahramanmaraş massacre

Main article: Kahramanmaraş massacre
On 23-24 December 24 1978, 111 Alevi people were killed. Unofficial figures are much higher. Martial law was declared afterwards, and the 1980 coup followed.[citation needed]

Assassination (attempts)

Prime ministers Bülent Ecevit and Turgut Özal survived assassination attempts by the Counter-Guerrilla. State prosecutor Doğan Öz, and newspaper editor Abdi İpekçi were killed.[22]

See also

• Deep state
  
• CIA activities in Turkey
  
• Turkey–United States relations
  

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23. ^ a b "THE NAME OF THE WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE: THE CONTRA-GUERRILLA". Ozgur Politika. 1997-02-11. Archived from the original on 2009-01-03. http://web.archive.org/web/1998021410582...part1.html. "They are trained by the USA, but not because the USA wants to be of help. In the training camps and schools, the CIA contacts them and tries to enlist them as CIA agents."
    
24. ^ Yilmaz, Turan (2008-11-10). "Özel Harpçi Kürt Laz, Çerkez vardı" (in Turkish). Hürriyet. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/3736369.asp. Retrieved on 2008-11-10. "Türkiye açısından işgale en açık bölgeler Doğu ve Güneydoğu olduğu için en çok da oralardan insanlar var."
    
25. ^ Değer, M. Emin (1978) (in Turkish). CIA, Kontrgerilla ve Türkiye. Ankara: Kendi Yayını. p. 145. General Akyol advises brutal false flag operations: "Halkı mukavemetçilerden ayırmak için, sanki ayaklanma kuvvetleri yapıyormuş gibi müdahale kuvvetlerince, zulme kadar varan haksız muamele örnekleri ile sahte operasyon*lara başvurulması tavsiye edilir." Quoted in "Susurluk’ta bütün yollar, devlete uğrayarak CIA’ya çıkar" (in Turkish). Kurtuluş Yolu 4 (39). 2008-09-19. http://kurtulusyolu.org/gazete/tam_goster.php?fid=273. Retrieved on 2008-11-04.
    
26. ^ "Gladyo-Ergenekon yol kardeşliği" (in Turkish). Radikal. 2008-08-13. http://www.radikal.com.tr/Default.aspx?a...egoryID=77. Retrieved on 2008-10-15.
    
27. ^ Turhan, Talat (1976-10-11). "12 Mart Hukuku'nun Ardındaki ABD mi?" (in Turkish). Politika Gazetesi. http://www.talatturhan.com/gazete-17.htm. Retrieved on 2008-11-04.
    
28. ^ Milliyet, 2 February 1978: "THA muhabirlerinin elde ettiği kitap, Pi*yade Kıdemli Albay Cahit Vural tarafından yazılmış ve 1972 yılında aralık ayında Anka*ra’da basılmıştır. Kitabın basıldığı matbaa ve fiyatı kitapta belirtilmemektedir. Kapaktan sonraki ilk sayfada 'Hizmete Öze'” damgası taşımaktadır...12 Mart döneminde basılarak dağıtılan Gerillaya Giriş adlı kitapta, gerilla ile mücadele için gerekli fikre sahip, bedeni eğitim gör*müş birliklerin bir 'Karşı-Gerilla' birliği ola*rak kurulması ve mücadeleye geçmesi gerekti*ği savunulmaktadır.", quoted in "Susurluk’ta bütün yollar, devlete uğrayarak CIA’ya çıkar" (in Turkish). Kurtuluş Yolu 4 (39). 2008-09-19. http://kurtulusyolu.org/gazete/tam_goster.php?fid=273. Retrieved on 2008-11-04.
    
29. ^ a b Doğan, İbrahim (2008-05-12). "Türkeş TMT'yi benden öğrendi, boynuma sarıldı" (in Turkish). Aksiyon 701. http://www.aksiyon.com.tr/detay.php?id=30244. Retrieved on 2008-09-22.
    
30. ^ a b Çelik, Serdar (February/March 1994). "Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force". Kurdistan Report 17. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-20. quoting Bülent Ecevit from "a newspaper interview" (in Turkish). Milliyet. 1990-11-28. "Özel Harp Dairesinin nerede bulunduğunu sordum 'Amerikan Askerî Yardım Heyetiyle aynı binada' yanıtını aldım."
    
31. ^ Picture of the JUSMMAT building, some newspaper headlines, and other information: Fethullahçı Gladyo at YouTube (Turkish)
    
32. ^ İnsel, Ahmet. "Rutininde İç Düşman Olan Devlet," Birikim, March 2000, Vol. 131, cited in pp.56-58 of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey's 1998 Report
    
33. ^ Gezer, Şenol (2006-04-17). "Oral Çelik: 'Ülkücüleri Naziler eğitti'". Bugün. Archived from the original on 2006-04-17. http://www.barobirlik.org.tr/calisma/bas.../04/17.htm.
    
34. ^ Herman, Edward; Brodhead, Frank (May 1986). The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection. New York: Sheridan Square. p. 63. ISBN 0-940380-06-4. http://www.xs4all.nl/~afa/alert/2_7/henze.html.
    
35. ^ Keskingören, Tugrul (2005-04-09). "Ruzi Nazar Ile Turkistan Uzerine Sohbet" (in Turkish). Washington News Forum. http://washingtonhaber.blogspot.com/2005...erine.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-05. "Bizim liderimiz o donemde Mustafa Cokay’di...Mustafa Cokay’in butun gayesi Turkistan’in bagimsizligini yaratmakti."
    
36. ^ Akbas, Tutkun (2008-01-15). "Türkeş'i CIA kurtardı" (in Turkish). Sabah. http://arsiv.sabah.com.tr/2008/01/15/hab...DE728.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-29. (English) See also Video at YouTube
    
37. ^ Acan, Necdet (2006-01-03). "NATO Gladio istedi reddettik". Hürriyet. http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/h...2006-01-03. Retrieved on 2008-08-15.
    
38. ^ a b c Dilipak, Abrurrahman (2008-10-13). "Washington’dan Ankara’ya yol gider!" (in Turkish). Vakit. http://www.radyovakit.com/haber_detay.php?haber_id=4274. Retrieved on 2008-10-13.
    
39. ^ Ender Okusluk & Kursad Ciftci (2001-04-08). "Bitlis'in ölümü kaza" (in Turkish). Yeni Şafak. http://www.yenisafak.com.tr/arsiv/2001/NISAN/08/g4.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-13. "Özel Kuvvet Komutanlığı'nı görevlendirdim. Birliğin daha önce Özel Harp olan ismini değiştirdim."
    
40. ^ a b "Terörle mücadeleye özel kuvvet" (in Turkish). Radikal. 2006-08-08. http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=195190. Retrieved on 2008-09-22. For a quote in English see Uslu, Emrullah (July 10 2008). "Tackling the PKK: New Directions for Turkey’s Special Forces". TerrorismMonitor (Jamestown Foundation) VI (14): 9-11. http://www.jamestown.org/single/%3Fno_ca...%5D%3D5045.
    
41. ^ "Özel Harp'teki siviller: Beyaz Kuvvetler" (in Turkish). Sabah. 2007-10-11. http://arsiv.sabah.com.tr/2007/10/11/hab...D0E73.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-12. "Özel Harp Dairesi askerlerinin Bordo Bereliler olarak anılmasından hareketle onlar da Beyaz Kuvvetler diye anıldılar."
    
42. ^ Kurtay, Serpil (2002-03-20). "Maşalar kötü de paşalar temiz mi? -2" (in Turkish). Evrensel. http://www.evrensel.net/02/03/20/dosya.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-02.
    
43. ^ Erbektaş, Barış (1997-11-08). "Kontrgerilla soruşturmasını Doğan Güreş engelledi" (in Turkish). Evrensel. http://www.evrensel.net/99/11/08/politika.html#1. Retrieved on 2009-01-02.
    
44. ^ Kilic, Ecevit (2007-10-11). "Çatlı ve Ağca Özel Harp Dairesi'ne bağlı çalıştı" (in Turkish). Sabah. http://arsiv.sabah.com.tr/2007/10/11/hab...4FFF2.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-16. "Özel Harp Dairesi'nin 1994'te isim değiştiri

[Magda Hassan]

The Last Cold Warriors

by Lucy Komisar

The United States set up secret paramilitary force at the height of the Cold War ISTANBUL -- On November 3, a truck crashed into a Mercedes-Benz in Susurluk, 90 miles south of Istanbul, and killed three Turkish passengers: a fugitive heroin smuggler and hitman, a former high-ranking police officer, and a former "Miss Cinema." The lone survivor was a rightwing member of parliament. In the car's trunk, police found a forged passport, police identification papers, ammunition, silencers and machine guns. Abdallah Catli, the fugitive heroin smuggler, had escaped from a Swiss prison. The dead beauty queen, Gonca Uz, was his girlfriend.
The police officer was Huseyin Kocadag, head of a Turkish police academy and a former Istanbul deputy police chief who reportedly organized hit squads in the southeast that kill Kurdish guerrillas and their supporters.
The survivor, Sedat Bucak, a member of parliament from the conservative True Path Party is reportedly in charge of 2,000 Kurdish mercenaries paid by the government to fight Kurdish guerrillas.
The car crash has created a sensation in Turkey and had led parliament to hold hearings on the ties linking the True Path Party, the police, and thugs like Abdullah Catli. Newspapers in Turkey are making connections between what they are calling the "state gang" and a secret paramilitary force that for decades has attacked the left. But as Turkish investigators dig, they may come across one more hidden connection: The United States set up that secret paramilitary force at the height of the Cold War.


In the 1950's, the United States was concerned that the Soviet Union would conquer much of Western Europe. The CIA and the Pentagon came up with a plan to establish secret resistance groups within various Western European countries that would fight back against the predicted Soviet occupation. These groups were called "stay behind" organizations: little cells of paramilitary units that would take on the Soviets behind enemy lines. Belgium, France, Holland, Greece, Italy, and Germany have all acknowledged that they participated in the covert network. The United States funded these stay behind groups for decades. Even though there was no Soviet occupation, some of the groups did take up arms -- against leftwing dissidents in their own countries. Some descendants of these groups are still at it, especially in Turkey.
Abdullah Catli was one of these.
"The accident unveiled the dark liaisons within the state," former prime minister Bulent Ecevit told parliament in December. Now leader of a small opposition social democratic party, Ecevit knows a lot about those liaisons. He first told me about them -- and the American connection -- back in 1990, when I interviewed him in his Ankara office, where he sat in a soft, brown chair sipping a cherry drink.
Ecevit is a genial, 71-year-old man with a high forehead, deep-set eyes, a beakish nose, curly black hair, and a moustache. The son of a doctor and a painter, Ecevit is an intellectual and a poet who has translated T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. He graduated from the American-run Robert College and lived in the U.S. as a student and a journalist. He once led the major social democratic party; there was a split, and he now heads the smaller of the two.
Ecevit became prime minister in 1973. He told me he was startled the following year when the Turkish military high command requested money from the prime minister's secret fund to pay for a new headquarters for the Special Warfare Department. General Semih Sancar, Turkey's army commander, told him about the department. He said the Americans had funded it from the start, but now they were allegedly pulling out. Sancar advised Ecevit not to look too closely at the matter. Ecevit investigated and found no such organization in the state budget.
"There are a certain number of volunteer patriots whose names are kept secret and are engaged for life in this special department," a military briefer told Ecevit. "They have hidden arms caches in various parts of the country."
At the time, Ecevit worried that these so-called lifetime patriots might have a rightist slant and would use their weaponry to advance their ideological goals. But he felt he was in no position to deny them funds. Ecevit's party was the largest, but it had won only a third of the votes. He was running a shaky coalition government. Ecevit released the funds the military wanted and never discussed the matter with the United States.
But the U.S. government surely knew about it. It set up the secret stay behind organization and funded it for more than two decades.


Working out of the Joint U.S. Military Aid Team headquarters, it was known first as the Tactical Mobilization Group and then the Special Warfare Department. In 1971, after a military coup, it was dubbed the counterguerrilla force and turned into an instrument of terror against the left. Journalist Ugur Mumcu, who was arrested shortly after the coup, wrote later that his torturers told him, "We are the counterguerrilla. Even the president of the republic cannot touch us." (Mumcu, who continued to write in the daily Cumhuriyet about the counterguerrilla force and about the existence of rightist drug gangs connected to the government, was killed by a car bomb in 1993.)
Confirmation of the counterguerrilla force's existence has come from the highest sources. Former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Kennan Evren, who led a 1980 coup, wrote in his memoirs that Suleyman Demirel, now president and in the late 1970's prime minister, asked then that the Special Warfare Department be used to combat terrorism. Evren said he refused, but that Demirel had insisted, pointing out that it had been used in 1971 against subversive activities.
General Evren acknowledged that the Special Warfare Department was involved in clandestine activities, citing the murder of nine leftwing militants at Kizildere in northern Turkey in 1972. He told a newspaper that civilians in the paramilitary organization run by the department may have been involved in terrorist incidents in the 1970's without his knowledge. Given the military's tight control over security, such ignorance is highly unlikely.
One notorious terrorist incident Ecevit thought the stay behind group may have been involved in occurred on May Day, 1977, when the major trade union confederation organized a rally that brought several hundred thousand people to Istanbul's main Taksim Square. As the sun was setting, snipers on surrounding buildings started firing at the speakers' platform. The crowd panicked. Thirty-eight were killed; hundreds were injured. The shooting lasted for 20 minutes; several thousand police at the scene did nothing.
Ecevit, who was out of office at the time, went to see President Fahri Koruturk and told him he thought the counterguerrilla force might have carried out the massacre. "Give me a written statement," Koruturk answered. He relayed Ecevit's fears to Prime Minister Demirel, Ecevit recalled, but nothing came of it.


When he ran for prime minister in late 1977, Ecevit denounced the counterguerrillas. When he became prime minister, he told Army Chief of Staff Evren, 'During the Kizildere incidents the Special Warfare Section is said to have been used. I am worried about this civilian organization. There is no means of knowing or controlling what a young recruit may get up to after twenty years in such an organization." Evren replied, "There is nothing to worry about. We will deal with it." So Ecevit blocked a parliamentary debate on the issue. At a news conference, he denied existence of the counterguerrilla group and said his earlier charges were just suppositions. Signaling his fear of provoking the military, he said, "We must all be respectful towards the Turkish Armed Forces and help them in the realization of their desire to remain out of politics."
Once, when Ecevit was touring the country, a general in eastern Turkey gave a dinner in his honor. When Ecevit learned he had worked in the Special Warfare Department, he told the general, "I have deep suspicions about the civilian extension of that department."
"The civilians work very honestly, very faithfully," the general assured him. "There is nothing to be afraid of."
Ecevit told him, "Simply as a hypothesis, it's quite possible, general, that one of those lifetime patriots might at a certain later date become the party chief of the Nationalist Action Party, which is involved in rightwing terrorism in this very town.
"Yes," said the general, "This is the case, but he's a very nice man."
By the late 1970's, violence between the left and right threatened Turkey's stability. The chief violent group on the right was the neofascist "Grey Wolves," the militant arm of the rightist Nationalist Action Party head by Alparslan Turkes, a former colonel and a leader of the 1960 military coup.
Our dead heroin trafficker, Abdallah Catli, was a leader of the Grey Wolves when he was found guilty in absentia of organizing the 1978 murders of seven student members of the Turkish Labor Party.


After the car crash, Turkes admitted that Catli had worked clandestinely for the military and police, that he had worked "in the framework of a secret service working for the good of the state." A former Turkish foreign-ministry adviser and the head of the intelligence anti-terror unit also told officials conducting the current parliamentary inquiry that Catli worked for Turkish intelligence. Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller, a leader of the conservative True Path Party, praised Catli after the crash: "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."
The rightwing terrorism Catli was involved in during the late 1970's helped set the stage for the 1980 military coup, which the generals said was needed to save the country from anarchy.
After the 1980 coup, several hundred thousand leftists were jailed for three or four years without trial. Many were tortured. The parliamentary commission has called on Evren to testify about charges that terror squads were used routinely by the military junta and participated in roundups of leftists.
By the mid-80's, the counterguerrillas had a new target: the Kurds. Government security agencies began using paramilitary death squads against Kurds who started an armed struggle in 1984. In November 1990, six months after our interview, Ecevit repeated publicly that a clandestine paramilitary force existed in Turkey. Three weeks later, the head of the Turkish Army Operations Department and the commander of the Special Forces issued a statement that there was a special NATO organization in Turkey called the Special Warfare Department, whose mission was "to organize resistance in the case of a communist occupation." They said its secret members were "patriots" not connected to the counterguerrillas. The special NATO organization was, of course, the "stay behind" operation the Americans had started.
In 1992, the commander of the Special Warfare Department, General Kemal Yilmaz said, "The department is still active in security operations against armed members of the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) in Turkey's southeastern provinces."
The U.S. State Department's 1995 human rights report on Turkey was blunt: "Prominent credible human rights organizations, Kurdish leaders, and local Kurds asserted that the government acquiesces in, or even carries out, the murders of civilians." It said, "Human rights groups reported the widespread and credible belief that a counterguerrilla group associated with the security forces had carried out at least some 'mystery killings.'"

[URL="http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9703b/turkeycia-sidebar.html"]SIDEBAR:
The Assassins of a Pope[/URL]

The State Department's 1996 report on Turkey did not mention the counterguerrillas, but said that, "'mystery killings' continued to occur with disturbing frequency." It also said, "The 1995 recommendations of a parliamentary committee, designed to purge 'illegal formations' within the state which the committee said committed some mystery killings, were not implemented." The Turkish embassy in Washington said it had no information on these illegal formations. Meanwhile, the paramilitary commission investigating the Mercedes-Benz crash has recommended prosecuting the lone survivor of the crash, along with 34 others linked to the scandal, including several former police chiefs and officers.
As for Washington's role, Pentagon would not tell me whether it was still providing funds or other aid to the Special Warfare Department; in fact, it wouldn't answer any questions about it. I was told by officials variously that they knew nothing about it, that it had happened too long ago for there to be any records available, or that what I described was a CIA operation for which they could provide no information. One Pentagon historian, said, "Oh, you mean the 'stay behind' organization. That's classified."

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9703b/turkeycia.html

[Magda Hassan]

Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force

By Serdar Celik, in Kurdistan Report
No.17. February/March 1994

How The Force Was Set Up

Turkey joined NATO on April 4, 1952. In the same year, the organisation known as "Gladio", or officially as "Super NATO", whose arm in Turkey is the contra-guerrilla force called Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu (STK - Tactical Mobilisation Group), started its activities in the building of the CIA organisation American Yardim Heyeti (American Aid Delegation - JUSMATT) in the Bahcelievler district of the Turkish capital Ankara. (*1)
During the 1960s, following on from the experience of Korea and Vietnam, the American-dominated armies of NATO began to set up their own special guerrilla warfare units. The 1959 military accord between the Turkish and US governments envisaged the use of the contra-guerrillas "also in the case of an internal rebellion against the regime". (*2)
The STK was restructured in 1965 and was renamed Ozel Harp Dairesi (OHD - Special Warfare Department). It comes under the authority of the President of General Staff and is also known by other titles such as Ozel Kuvvetler Komutanlik (Special Forces Command) or Harekat Dairesi (Operations Department).
Although it was revealed through the "Gladio" affair in Italy in 1990 that such secret organisations also existed in other member states of NATO, and that they maintained close contacts with these countries' secret services and had been involved in a series of murders and bomb plots, the Turkish military and state authorities continued to deny the existence of any such organisation in Turkey.
Only after ex-CIA chief William Colby had revealed that "there is also such an organisation in Turkey" did the Turkish authorities withdraw their false pretentions that there was no Turkish Gladio. On December 3, 1990, General Dogan Beyazit, President of the Harekat Dairesi (Operation Department) of Turkey's General Staff and General Kemal Yilmaz, commander of the Ozel Kuvvetler (Special Forces), issued a press statement. In this statement they revealed that the title of the special NATO organisation in Turkey was Ozel Harp Dairesi (Special Warfare Department) and that its task was "to organise rewsistence in the case of a communist occupation". They further explained that this organisation had fought in Cyprus in 1974 and against the PKK in Kurdistan in 1980, but that its secret members, whom they called "patriots", had "no connection with the contra-guerrilla forces" (1). This latter claim is a blatant lie.
The bloody dictator of the September 12, 1980 coup, Kenan Evren, wrote in his memoirs that Prime Minister Suleyman Demiriel had in the 1970s written to him of his wish to engage the Special Warfare Department to deal with civil unrest (2). This was denied by Demuriel. Bulent Ecevit, another Prime Minister of the 1970s, revealed that: "As Prime Minister I first became aware of its existence in 1974 through requests from Semih Sancar, chief of the General Staff, for money for secret payments to the Special Warfare Department. I was shocked". (3)
How and why was the Special Warfare Department set up?

The founding aim of the Department is: "In the case of a communist occupation or of a rebellion, to use guerrilla methods and all possible underground activities to bring an end to the occupation." (4) The special war methods which are taught supposedly for the prevention of a communist occupation include among others "assasinations, bombings, armed robbery, torture, attacks, kidnap, threats, provocation, militia training, hostage- taking, arson, sabotage, propaganda, disinformation, violence and extortion." (5)
Textbooks by American contra-guerrilla experts were translated into Turkish, and these special war methods were thus introduced into Turkey. Some of the textbooks written by American experts are: "U.S. Army FM 31/16" (contra-guerrilla operations), "U.S. Army Special Warfare School" (contra-guerrilla tactics and techniques), "FM 31/20" (special forces operational techniques), "FM 31/21 Special Forces Operations" (ST urban assignments, 31/21 guerrilla warfare and special forces operations ), "FM 31/21 A. Special Forces Operations (U)" (special forces secret operations). (6)
The Turkish contra-guerrilla force developed the most complex and sophisticated methods for its war against the PKK. Since 1985 a series of new textbooks and instructions for the contra- guerrillas have been published. Just one example is the book "Ic Guvenlik Konsepti" (The Concept of Internal Security), which was published by the Special Warfare Command of the General Staff in 1985, and which is used as a textbook in the contra-guerrilla camps.
The underground elements of the Special Warfare Department - that is, the elements which carry out actions - are called contra- guerrillas. The Special Warfare Department can be identified with the contra-guerrillas, since it is the latter who put the Department's work into practise.
The Turkish contra-guerrillas have many schools in Turkey, in which they receive their training - in Ankara, Bolu, Kayseri, Buca near Izmir, Canakkale and since 1974 in Cyprus. "In the mountain commando school in Bolu, green berets (Delta Forces) who fought in Vietnam also got their training". (7)
The contra-guerrilla teams, who are implanted with a fanatical hatred of the "peril" of "communism" and "separatism", whose heads are full of chauvanism, are unleashed against anyone who stands in opposition to the regime. For their goal, which they pursue with the support of the USA, is "the establishment of a competent military and semi-military force which will, jointly with the security forces, maintain internal security". (9)
In their eyes not only the "communists", but each and every democratic movement is a danger which they aim to counter using guerrilla methods. The American military doctrine as presented in the textbooks holds that "our security is threatened not only by open attacks, but also by other types of threats which are even more dangerous than open attacks but which do not look like open attacks. These dangers consist of the attampts to bring about transformations and changes from the inside." (10)
Selected elements of the Turkish contra-guerrillas together with the generals were all trained in contra-guerrilla schools in the USA. The aims of this training are defined as follows: "The goal of military aid is to educate soldiers from underdeveloped countries in accordance with U.S. ideology and then to install them advantageously in the leadership of their countries". (11) During their training in the USA the contra-guerrilla forces "are taught about social problems in their countries, and shown films which demonstrate the aggression and subversion of the communists. They learn how to handle explosives under the supervision of green berets in Matamoros near the Mexican border, and they are taught how to kill, stab or strangle somebody silently, etc". (12). Other places where Turkish officials are trained are the Escuela de los Americas in Panama, which is attached to the U.S. base Southern Comfort, the Police Academy near Washington and the Schongau and Oberammergau bases in Germany. (*3)
Part of the Special Warfare Department is made up of officers from official units known as A-units or Special Operations Units. As the war became more intense, B-units were formed within the Special Warfare Department, made up of professional volunteer commando forces. Both types of units employ contra-guerrilla tactics.
The forces built by the Special Warfare Department have everywhere formed organisations in the form of cells. These elements, known as "patriots", are placed in front-line duties by being infiltrated as agents-provocateurs into political parties, administrative departments and opposition groups.
The strongest pillar of the Special Warfare Department is the Secret Service. In Turkey the Secret Service is subordinate to the General Staff and so also to the Special Warfare Department. The civilian government has no control whatsoever over the Secret Service. In Turkey there are various secret services: the MIT (National Secret Service Organisation) and the Secret Services of the Gendarmerie, the General Staff, the Foreign Ministry, the Director of Security (the political police) and the Presidential Office. These secret services hold quarterly meetings under the umbrella of the National Secret Service Coordinating Committee.
The MIT has the greatest influence of all these organisations. This Turkish secret service organisation was originally called MAH and was restructured and renamed MIT in 1965. The MIT is a branch of the CIA and collaborates with the Israeli secret service MOSSAD, the German BND and earlier (up to 1975) with the Iranian SAVAK. Many operations of the Special Warfare Department are carried out in collaboration with the MIT. A third of the MIT's functionaries are members of the armed forces and the rest are mostly retired military personnel. It is a legal requirement that the chief of the MIT must be a member of the armed forces. Since the founding of the MIT, all the heads have been generals. They are appointed by the General Staff or by the Special Warfare Department. The 1989 budget of the MIT amounted to 42,745 million Turkish lira. (*4)
Another organisation coming under the Special Warfare Department is the Psychological Warfare Department. On November 9, 1983 this department became the TIB (Ministry for Social Relations). Its headquarters are in Ankara. Its first chief was Dogan Beyazit, who was at the same time also head of the Special Warfare Department. He was in charge of propaganda operations which the CIA program divided into "white, "grey" and "black" propaganda. Many professors were employed within the TIB. (*5)
The TIB has brought out numerous journals and pamphlets and even comics. It formed satellite organisations under such names as "The Institute for Research into Turkish Culture", "Turkish World Research Institute", etc. The main aim of the TIB since the '80s has been to develop the psychological front in the war against the PKK.
With this aim in mind, pamphlets are printed which try to blame the PKK for massacres committed by the contra-guerrillas. Such pamphlets are distributed in various languages in Europe, purporting to originate from such ficticious publishers as "the Union of Anatolian Women". Or else bogus leaflets attacking the PKK are distributed under the names of existing or ficticious political organisations. Posters and leaflets are put about which are full of ridiculous propaganda such as those claiming that the PKK is an Armenian organisation. Or television programmes and books are produced which slander the PKK. In the towns of Kurdistan professors hold seminars about how "Kurds are really Turks" etc. The most effective institution from the point of view of the TIB - that is the Psychological Warfare Department of the Special Warfare Department - is the press. Turkish daily newspapers such as "Hurriyet", "Milliyet", "Tercumann", "Turkiye" and "Sabah", which have become semi-official organs of the state, are pressured into carrying out systematic propaganda against the PKK.
Another area where the Special Warfare Department wields its influence is of course the political parties. All state politicians and all bourgeois parties in Turkey are under the control of the Special Warfare Department. Here are just two examples:
Turkish President Suleyman Demirel was the first Turk to get a scholarship from the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, which is controlled by the CIA. Later he held for many years the agency rights for the firm of Morrison, which built the death cells in Vietnam. (*6) When Demirel was in the USA in 1963, he was sent into the Adalet Partisi (Justice Party). In 1965 he became the chairman of this party and is now State President.
Turgut Ozal, who was Prime Minister from 1983 to 1990 and President from 1990 until his death in 1993, was an official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Special Warfare Department And Paramilitary MHP

During the 1970s the struggle for democracy was developing in Turkey. In Kurdistan the struggle for national liberation was growing. With the help of the MHP (National Action Party), which was brought onto the scene in the 70s, hundreds of students, workers, intellectuals, trades unionists and educationalists were murdered: the president of DISK (the Federation of Revolutionary Trades Unions) Kemal Turkler, the journalist Abdi Ipekci, Professor Dr Bedri Karafakiroglu, professors Umit Doganay and Cavit Orhan Tutengil, Umit Kaftancioglu, State Counsel Dogan Oz, security chief Cevat Yurdakul, University Professor Orhan Yavuz, Bedrettin Comert, Server Tanilli (who survived but remained disabled), Chair Adana Chamber of Agricultural Engineers Akin Ozdemir and hundreds more. In 1974 in Maras they massacred inumerable Kurdish and Alevi people - children, women and old folk and men. This preplanned act of genocide opened the way for the military coup of September 12, 1980.
It is know from the experiences of various countries that the CIA works together with the police to organize paramilitary groups in the tactics of irregular warfare. William Colby wrote: "To prevent Turkey from falling into the hands of the communists, the CIA gave support to anti-communist institutions". (13) Retired general Sezsi Orkunt, ex-chief of the General Staff said: "The Turkish armed forces were more worried about the Left than the Right. The Right was organised in the MHP and its leader Turkes was helped on his way". (14) When the MHP's Ankara headquarters were searched at the time of the 1980 coup, the "Contra-Guerrilla Assignment 31/15 on the Model Plan for Underground Cells" was found there. (15) The MHP had obtained this plan from Colonel Mehmet Alanyuva of the Agents Section of the Special Warfare Department, the MHP's militants, who were organised in accordance with this plan, went on to perpetuate a veritable massacre against innocent people from the opposition.
The CIA also employed the MHP militants for terrorist plots on an international level. For example, the murderer of the journalist Abdi Ipekci was the same man who in 1991 carried out the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul.
The MHP is also organised in Europe, and particularly in Germany. Until 1976 it was organised there under the same title. After that in Europe they took on the title Avrupa Ulkucu Dernekleri Federasyonu (Federation of National Associations in Europe). The MHP's organisation in Germany maintains connections with the German Secret Service. The journalist Ugur Mumcu, who was assassinated in 1993, wrote: "These connections were set up in Cologne by a German named Kannabin". (16) The MHP has another patron in Germany - Rudi Nazar. He is a CIA agent who was for many years active in Ankara and was later transferred to Bonn. Jurgen Roth went into this matter in detail in his book "Criminals Incorporated" and came to the conclusion, based on information from a president of one of the republics of the former Soviet Union, that the MHP is also involved in the heroin trade in Germany.
General Haydar Saltik, one of those responsible for the September 12, 1980 coup, later left the army and became Consul in the Turkish consulate in Berne. He renewed his contacts with the Turkish nationalists and sent 15,000 officers and MHP militants, who came under the Special Warfare Department and had already had a hand in many attacks against the Armenians, to Azerbaijan. After their training, these militants were sent to Baku. The attacks on the Kurdish population in Antalya and other Turkish towns during the past year were also carried out by the MIT and the MHP. The MHP is still the paramilitary wing of the Special Warfare Department. This time, however, it was more effective, since the entire state with all its constituent parts has grown into an even more racist, anti-Kurdish and paramilitary organisation.
The Operations Of The Turkish Contra-Guerrillas

The bloody work of the Special Warfare Department is so wide- ranging that we can not go into everything here. We will, therefore, go straight over to Kurdistan, where the contra- guerrillas are employed in the front line against the national liberation struggle. First, however, we would like to recount some of the decisive points of the decisive points of the contra- guerrillas' activities prior to 1980:
Agents from the Special Warfare Department threw a bomb into the house in Thessallonika in Greece which was used as the Mustafa Kemal Museum, and blamed this act on the Greek police. Consequently, on the 6 and 7 of September 1955, fanatical groups fired up by the contra-guerrillas wrecked Greek homes and businesses in Istanbul.
The most important actions of the Special Warfare Department were the three military coups. This Department was responsible for the coup of May 27, 1967 and above all for the last two coups of the March 12, 1971 and September 12, 1980. The then Foreign Minister Ihsan Sabri Caglayangil, who was invited to Teheran a few days before March 12, 1971, learned from the Shah of Iran that there was going to be a coup in Turkey. (17) The then commander of the Turkish airforce, Muhsin Batur, went the the USA just before the coup of September 12, 1980. Again the then airforce commander Tahsin Sahinkaya flew to the USA and the coup took place two days after his return. Carter, who was at the opera when he heard about the coup, called Paul Henze, the CIA agent responsible for Turkey, and told him: " Your people have just made a coup". (18)
The torture chambers which opened in 1971 gave the contra- guerrillas an important opportunity to gain practical experience. The contra-guerrilla generals who took people to the torture chambers in Ziverbay in Istanbul told their victims for the first time that they were prisoners of the contra-guerrillas. The interrogations were carried out by contra-guerrilla specialists called EBU (Correct Information Officers). A team of interrogation specialists called the DAL (Deep Investigation Laboratory) was set up by the political police in Ankara. These torture specialists murdered or caused permanent damage to hundreds of people. Later on, these teams were dispatched all over Turkey and especially Kurdistan. In 1971 the contra-guerrillas' torture was directed by General Faik Turun, Turgut Sonap and Memduh Unluturk. (*7)
The invasion of Cyprus was an action of the Special Warfare Department. In 1955 the Department set up a secret organisation called the Turk Mukavemet Hareketi (Turkish Resistance Movement). This organisation carried out systematic provocations in Cyprus in order to prepare the conditions for the 1974 coup. To prepare for the occupation of Cyprus, teams directed by Hiram Abbas and the Special Warfare Department established themselves in Beirut, from where they could organise activities in Cyprus. The Cyprus invasion was organised by the then chief of the Special Warfare Department Kemal Yemek. Cyprus was the first serious test for the Turkish contra-guerrillas. After 1980 Kurdistan took the place of Cyprus in this respect.
The State Security Courts are a product of the Special Warfare Department and they are assigned the task of restructuring the judicial process to fit the demands of the contra-guerrillas. In accordance with a directive of the contra-guerrillas, the the State Security Courts aim "not to condemn the defendants according to the punishments set out for the political crimes, but to administer punishments as severe as those set out for murder and other crimes against the person". (19) The detainees were severely tortured and then came before a contra-guerrilla court. Most of the judges have come from the military and are therefore tools of the Special Warfare Department.
The murders and terrorist acts committed by the MHP were actions of the Special Warfare Department. Their purpose was to intimidate the opposition and prepare the conditions for a coup. The Special Warfare Department was successful in this task: on September 12, they carried out the military coup d'etat. This coup was the most important action of the contra-guerrillas. All arms of the state were reorganised on paramilitary lines. The Special Warfare Department gained control over the underworld (the Turkish mafia), the press, commerce, the judicial system, parliament, the universities and all other areas of society. All administrative organs and laws were restructured along the same lines.
Sources:

1. Interview with the President of the Turkish General Staff Dogan Gures, "Milliyet" 5/6 September 1992
2. "Hurriyet" 26 November 1992
3. "Milliyet" 28 November 1990
4. "Cumhuriyet" 17 November 1990
5. "Directive ST 31/15 for Operations Against Irregular Forces"
6. "The Contra-Guerrillas and the MHP" Vol 1, Aydinlik Yayinlari, p19 and Talat Turhan "The Contra-Guerrilla Republic", p19
7. "The Contra-Guerrillas and the MHP", p16
8. " The American Military Doctrine, Report of the Rockerfeller Foundation", p356
9. "The Age of Imperialism", Harry Magdorff (translated by M. Emin Doger., "CIA, Contra-Guerrillas and Turkey"), p104
10. ibid. p122
11. McNamara, 1967 (US State Department of Defense)
12. Franco Salinas, "State of Emergency", pp82-88
13. "Cumhuriyet" 21 November 1990
14. "Hurriyet" 19 November 1990
15. "Gunes" 17 November 1990
16. Ugur Mumcu "Pope-Mafia-Agca" p143
17. Cuneyit Arcayurek "Coups and the Secret Services" p160
18. ibid. p190
19. "Directive ST 31/15 for Operations Against Irregular Forces"
Notes:


*1 The "Super-NATO" organisation was set up under the control of the CIA in all the NATO countries. The headquarters of this organisation was in Brussels and was named the Allied Coordination Committee (ACC). Secret meetings were held annually in which delegates from all the member countries took part. The official purpose of the organisation is "to organise resistance using irregular warfare methods in case of a communist occupation". The organisation has at its disposal special funds and weapons depots. It is not answerable for its activities under the laws of the individual member states. The organisation's branch in Italy was called "Gladio", in Germany "Anti-Communist Assault Unit", in Greece " Hide of the Red Buck", in Belgium "Glavia". The "Super- NATO" also set up branch organisations in non-NATO countries such as Austria and Switzerland.
*2 Referring to contra-guerrilla warfare conducted by the USA, former U.S. Secretary of State McNamara explained that "partisan wars call for a change in our understanding of warfare. In regions where partisan war has broken out, what is needed is not a great number of military units and weapons, but rather small units who have been well trained in guerrilla and counter-guerrilla tactics and armed with special weapons".(8) The American Delta Forces, the British Special Air Service (SAS), the Italian Special Forces Section and the German GSG-9 are units of this type. The former U.S. President Johnson declared in 1964 that 344 contra-guerrilla units had been trained by the USA in 49 countries of the world.
*3 In the 70s the following persons, among others, who still occupy important positions today, were members of the Turkish police and secret service: Sekru Balci, Ilgaz Aykutlu, Kenan Koc, Umit Erdal, Hiram Abbas (who was killed in 1990 [by militants of the armed communist organization Devrimci Sol, was in the 70s one of the three most influential persons in the MIT), Mehmet Aymur (Abbas' right-hand man in the MIT), Hayri Kozakcioglu (who was trained by Scotland Yard and in 1987 made Governor with Special Powers), Unal Erkan (at that time Kozakcioglu's successor as "Supergovernor" in diyarbakir).
*4 Divided among the 55 million people of the Turkish and Kurdish population, this means 949 Turkish Lira per head that every Turk and Kurd have to pay in order to finance the "work" of spying, torture and murder of this gang of killers.
*5 Professors Abdulhaluk Cay, Ibrahim Kafescioglu, Bahattin Ogel, Ertugrul Zekai Okte, Aydin Yalcin, among others.
*6 "In 1967 the CIA's budget for the funding of 'useful friends and elements' abroad was raised to 10 million U.S. dollars per year. Most of these funds flowed through our trade unions, student unions and special institutions into foreign institutions. The use of our trade unions and associations as a sort of screen prevented it from becoming known that the source of these funds was in reality the CIA". (Fron the book "CIA, Secret Services and Democracy" by the former CIA chief Stanfield Turner).
*7 Faik Turun became an MP for the AP (Justice Party) in 1977. Turgut Sunalp became a minister in parliament in 1982 as a member of the MDP (National Democratic Party). The retired Memduh Unluturk was killed by militants of the organization Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left) in 1991.
(From Kurdistan Report #17 - February/March 1994)

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