28-03-2009, 08:02 AM
Susurluk scandal
The Susurluk scandal was a political scandal in Turkey between 1996-1997 that indicated a relationship between the government, the armed forces, and organized crime. The scandal surfaced with a planned car crash on 3 November 1996, near Susurluk, in the province of Balıkesir. The victims included the deputy chief of the Istanbul police, a parliament deputy who led a powerful clan, and a criminal on the Interpol's red list.
The state was engaged in an escalating low intensity conflict with the separatist, militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (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 National Security Council (NSC) about how to proceed was taking place. Doves such as president Turgut Özal and general Eşref Bitlis favored a non-military solution. However, both of these people died in 1993. The same year, the NSC prescribed a co-ordinated Black Operations campaign using special forces.[1][2]
Deputy prime minister Tansu Çiller tasked the police force, then under the leadership of Mehmet Ağar, with crippling the PKK and assassinating its leader, Abdullah Öcalan. The police unit responsible for this job was the Special Operations Department (Turkish: Özel Harekat Dairesi, ÖHD). Contract killer Abdullah Çatlı also took part. This caused consternation in the National Intelligence Organization (Turkish: Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT), which had formerly counted on Çatlı to undertake reprisals against the militant Armenian organization, ASALA. Especially concerned was Mehmet Eymür of the MİT's Operations/Counter-Terrorism Department, who had irreconcilable differences with Ağar.[3] The scandal has hence been pithily described as "the battle of the two Mehmets".[4]
Like many militant guerrilla groups, the PKK was funded by narcotics.[5] Instead of merely preventing the PKK from profiting from illegal activities, these factions fought over who would take its place.[6][7] Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak described the police camp as "pro-European", and the MİT camp as "pro-American".[8] The guilty pocketed billions of dollars in profits from the drug smuggling.[9] 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 War.[10][11] To put this into perspective the heroin trade, then worth $50 billion, exceeded the state budget of $48 billion.[12]: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.[11])
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 Party, DYP), and the sole survivor of the crash, chieftain Sedat Bucak, was released.[12]:588 Essentially, the perpetrators escaped justice.[13]
Some reforms were made; e.g., the intelligence agency was restructured to end the infighting (with Eymür's department entirely dismantled).[14]
The Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, the "Counter-Guerrilla", has been suspected of being involved in the scandal; some say it is at its heart.[14] Some hold that the scandal was made possible by the wresting control of the MIT away from military leadership in 1992.[6]
Who's who
Background
PKK-Turkey conflict
Main article: Turkey–Kurdistan Workers Party conflict
The fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (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 Şırnak. The PKK essentially controlled the towns of Şırnak and Cizre 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 catching members of the PKK using special forces, comprehensive psychological warfare, and a revamping of the military's inventory.[16][1]
The proposal brought before the National Security Council was initially rejected. Notable detractors were president Turgut Özal and general Eşref Bitlis, 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.[1] Çiller's rhetoric became more hawkish after this period.[17]
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 Çakıcı took part, along with 2,500–5,000 members of the special forces.[6] Many of these men were plucked from the ranks of the clandestine Counter-Guerrilla; the Turkish branch of the Operation Gladio.[18] The Counter-Guerrilla was originally established to prepare for the subversion of a possible Warsaw Pact invasion. However, once the USSR collapsed, the Counter-Guerrilla were used to fight the PKK.
It is alleged that during this period, a delegate including Çiller, Demirel, Hüsamettin Cindoruk (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.[notes 1] The officials assured these warlords, known to have lengthy criminal records,[notes 2] 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, howitzers, 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.[19]
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 Şahin, but he suffered a traffic accident and claimed to have lost his memory.[20][21]
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.[22] Can Dündar suggests that the weapons were used for political purposes other than to assassinate Öcalan.[23]
The chairman of the Workers' Party, Doğu Perinçek, alleged that "the Mafia-Gladio dictatorship"[24] was subordinate to Çiller and Ağar.[9]
Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak said that Ağar's gang aimed to create a state within a state, complete with a shadow army (the village guard system), and intelligence organization, inside the police force. The MİT purged the gang in a crash that was passed off as an accident.[25]
Causes of the scandal
According to Eymür, Susurluk was set in motion by the narcotics-related murder of two Iranians, Askar Simitko and Lazım Esmaeili in 1995. Simitko and Esmaeili were moles working for the MİT inside SAVAMA.[26] However, the MİT was not aware of their drug smuggling, which resulted in their death due to a nonpayment of a "tribute".[27]
The scandal surfaced after a car, carrying Abdullah Çatlı, Sedat Bucak, 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.[28]
The Prosecutor's Report said that the passengers in the car were on their way to stage an assassination.[29]
Turf war
The origins of the turf war date back to the reprisal operations in the 1980s against the militant Armenian organization, ASALA. Former president Kenan Evren ordered the MİT to organize a special forces 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.[30][31][notes 3]
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.[8] Once a Counter-Terrorism department was established in the MİT by 1996, Çatlı's unit came to be perceived as a competitor.[32]
Fikri Sağlar of the Republican People's Party (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 (Turkish: Kamu Güvenlik Başkanlığı, curiously shortening to KGB). Upon hearing news of unsavory activity from the KGB, president Süleyman Demirel 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 Eken as someone who was knowledgeable about Eymür. The scandal happened only because of Çiller's incompetence, said Sağlar.[11][33]
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.[34]
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.[9] According to government reports, the Söylemez Gang had arms, explosives, DM 186,500 and TL 155,200,000.[35]
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.[9]
Drug trafficking
![[Image: CIA-SWAsia-Heroin-2007.gif]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/CIA-SWAsia-Heroin-2007.gif)
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The heroin transportation route. Its European leg, nicknamed "the Balkan route", passes through Turkey.[36]
According to Interpol, "Turkey is a major staging area and transportation route for heroin destined for European markets."[37] The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimated the 1997 volume of the Turkish heroin traffic at 4-6 tons per month.[36]
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 money is tapped by the gangs as "commission"; a market on the order of $80 billion (1997).[38] According to Doğu Perinçek, the lure of heroin proved irresistible to the state, which suffered a $40-50 billion loss in trade with Iraq due to the U.N. embargo and the Gulf War.[39][10]
The biggest drug cartel was lead by Hüseyin Baybaşin. The U.K. National Crime Squad estimated that 90% of the heroin in the United Kingdom (25–35 tonnes annually in the late 90s) 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.[40]
Baybaşin said the most important state official involved in controlling the heroin trade was Şükrü Balcı, who was then chief of the Istanbul police.[12]:598
After Topal's capture, his friend Haluk Koral called Eymür for help. Topal had also been kidnapped by police chief İbrahim Şahin priorly.[41]
Yaprak was convicted in 1997 for involvement in the assassination of Gaziantep Bar lawyer Burhan Veli Torun, and released due to an amnesty law (Turkish: Şartlı Salıverilme Yasası). In 2002, he was re-imprisoned after being caught with 5 million pills of Captagon. He died in prison, January 2004.[43]
A market in the southeast town of Lice was destroyed by fire. Deputy Fikri Fikri Sağlar alleged that Lice was a center of drug processing, and that the factory was moved to Elazığ.[11]
Gambling and money laundering
The proceeds from drugs entered the market through casinos.[36]
The "casino king" Ömer Lütfü Topal was one of the key figures in this aspect of the scandal.
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).[44]
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.[36]
Extrajudicial killings
Prime minister Çiller sanctioned the killing of businessmen who were suspected of lending financial support to the PKK.[45]
The victims included "casino king" Ömer Lütfü Topal, Savaş Buldan, and Behçet Cantürk.[46]
Police chief Avci said that the gangs fell into infighting after alleged PKK financiers Behcet Canturk and Savas Buldan were assassinated, as the gangs had completed their mission of dismantling the PKK's financial foundation.[6]
The police force's Special Operations Department (Turkish: 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.[46]
Brigadier General Veli Küçük, who was Giresun'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.[47] Küçük denies JİTEM's existence to this day,[48] although there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence to the contrary.[7]
Azerbaijan coup plot
The prime minister's gang planned to depose Azerbaijan president Haydar Aliyev on 13-17 March 1995.[47] 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.[49][50]
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 OMON 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.[51] The KGB/FSB and CIA closely monitored the events.[49]
The coup was foiled after the MİT tipped off President Süleyman Demirel on 10 March 1995 and he called Aliyev.[9]
Elçibey was an ideological ally of Alparslan Türkeş, who harbored aspirations of creating a Turkic state stretching across the Caucasus. 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.[52]
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 fund.[52]
Chronology
A brief summary follows:[53]
3 November 1996A traffic accident in Susurluk near the city of Balikesir, in which Abdullah Çatlı, a former ultra-rightist militant wanted by police for multiple murders and drug trafficking; Huseyin Kocadag, a senior police official; and a beauty queen are killed and Sedat Bucak, a Parliament deputy from the DYP is injured. The accident creates political uproar and some charge that this incident highlights the illegal relationship between state officials and the mobsters. 8 November 1996Interior Minister Mehmet Agar, smarting under an opposition and media campaign against alleged police links with the underground crime bosses after the car accident in Susurluk, resigns and is promptly replaced by Meral Aksener, a female politician from the DYP. 12 November 1996Parliament rules for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to probe into links between senior police officials, organized crime bosses and politicians exposed the Susurluk accident. 22 November 1996Suleyman Demirel, who at the time was the President of Turkey, brings party leaders together at a round table summit to seek a consensus on a method of investigating alleged state-mafia connections unearthed after the breaking of the Susurluk scandal. 5 December 1996Recently appointed Interior Minister Aksener explains that she discharged Istanbul Chief of Police Kemal Yazicioglu and several Special Team members. Moreover, acting Police Security Department Chief Hanefi Avci was discharged. 11 December 1996Agar and Bucak are stripped of their immunities in a vote in the Parliamentary general assembly. 10 January 1997The Parliamentary Investigation Commission set up after the accident listens to 41 people, among whom were Bucak and Agar, as witnesses. Later, the chairman of the Commission, Mehmet Elkatmis, apparently says, "I got confused." 13 January 1997The Istanbul State Security Court (DGM) had ÖHD members Carkin, Ersoy and Yorulmaz are taken into custody. 14 January 1997Sedat Bucak's driver Abdulgani Kizilkaya, Mustafa Altunok and Enver Ulu are arrested in connection with the Susurluk incident. 23 January 1997Photographs showing Abdullah Catli, one of those killed at Susurluk and the one who was wanted for murder, together with special team members were published in a newspaper. These historical documents were evidence of relations between police and fugitives from the law. 11 March 1997Special Operations Department head Ibrahim Sahin is arrested. He is put in Metris prison together with special team members. 26 May 1997Susurluk truck driver Hasan Gokce was sentenced to pay damages. 22 June 1997Yasar Oz and Abdulgani Kizilkaya were set free. 19 September 1997Police and politicians accused in the Susurluk scandal were absolved. 24 November 1997Motherland Party (ANAP) Chairman Mesut Yilmaz is attacked in Budapest in which his nose is broken. It was claimed that he was attacked because he had delved to foar into Susurluk. 8 December 1997Judge Akman Akyurek, who helped to prepare the documents related to the Susurluk case and is investigating the criminal gang and its relationship with the state, is the victim of an automobile accident just like Susurluk. 6 February 1998Narcotics smuggler Sami Hostan was arrested. 4 May 1998Hostan was set free. 16 August 1998Çakıcı was arrested in France.
Car crash
The scandal began after a Mercedes 600 SEL owned by Bucak crashed into a truck near Çatalceviz, Susurluk in the Balıkesir province in Turkey. The crash took place on 3 November 1996 at around 19:25.[54]
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.[55]
Evidence seized at the crash site indicated that Çatlı had been carrying:[54]
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.[notes 5] 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.[60] 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.[61]
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.[62] His truck (a 1968 Ford) was foreclosed after he failed to pay his taxes.[63]
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 state".[64]
Reaction
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.[9]
Alparslan Türkeş, of the fascist MHP, also spoke out in defense of Çatlı.[72] Meanwhile, party chairman Devlet Bahçeli vehemently denied any MHP involvement.[73]
On 15 January 1998, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit drew attention to skulduggery by JİTEM; the intelligence wing of the Gendarmerie.[74]
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.[75]
Civilian
Several demonstrations, some of which were proscribed, were organized in protest against the corruption and illegal activities uncovered by the investigations.[76] 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.[77] The Deputy Chair of the DYP, Mehmet Golhan, denounced the protestors as traitors, while prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, of the Welfare Party, called them "parasites and conspirators...who have nothing to do apart from intrigue".[78]
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.[79]
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 (Turkish: Başbakanlık Teftiş Kurulu Başkanı), Kutlu Savaş. 12 of the 124 pages of this report, dated 22 January 1998, were classified.[notes 6] 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 Party leaders Tansu Çiller and Mehmet Ağar were at the heart of the scandal, and personally responsible for the "politics and economy becoming Mafia-like".[80] 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.[81] Ağar kept mum, revealing only that he had acted in accordance with the NSC's plan (from 1993).
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Turkish Wikisource has original text related to this article: Susurluk Raporu
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.[42]
Inspection Board report
Among others, the Inspection Board contained the following allegations:
Parliamentary report
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.[6]
Elkatmış said that the Chief of the General Staff, İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, prevented him from obtaining Küçük's testimony, saying that there was no need.[89]
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.[90]
Aftermath
The European market for heroin contracted as other drugs, esp. cocaine and ecstacy, took over.[12]:598 In 2008, the Istanbul police seized 11 tons of drugs, 3.2 of which was heroin.[91]
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.[89] One of its key figures, Tuncay Güney, 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.[21]
Öcalan evaded assassination after a television reporter, Yalçın Küçük, publicized the plan on the PKK's TV channel, MED-TV.[92] Küçük was also detained in the Ergenekon investigation.
Arrests and convictions
Reforms
The new undersecretary, Şenkal Atasagun, turned the MİT around, relocating Eymür and Ataç abroad, out of harm's way.[93] Eymür eventually found residence in McLean, Virginia; the seat of the CIA. He faces charges of revealing state secrets and spying for the United States.[94] Ataç too has been labeled a CIA asset.[95]
A Draft Law on Struggling With Organized Crime and another draft on the legalization of JİTEM, allowing the Gendarmerie to legally carry out intelligence activities, were also prepared as consequences of this scandal.[96]
Çiller ordered the casinos closed.[97]
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:[98]
Çakıcı's arrest
During Şenkal Atasagun's restructuring of the MİT, Yavuz Ataç was exiled to Beijing on 24 October 1997 for involvement with the mafia. The next month, Ataç handed Çakıcı the red passport that allowed him to travel freely.[6]
Çakıcı was arrested on 16 August 1998 in France,[101] carrying a diplomatic passport, after he allegedly threatened potential buyers of the Turkish Commerce Bank (Turkish: 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 Italy on a visa given to him at the Italian consulate.[12]:599
CHP deputy Fikri Sağlar alleges that Çakıcı deliberately chose to be apprehended in France, a country with a developed judicial system, 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.[11]
Ataç had originally planned to give the passport to Mehmet Can Kulaksızoğlu, the fugitive leader of the Turkish Revenge Brigade and suspected mastermind behind the assassination attempt on Human Rights Association chairman Akın Birdal.[95]
Çakıcı's arrest was timed to coincide with the wedding of Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar's son. Presidents Evren and Demirel 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.[6]
The Susurluk scandal was a political scandal in Turkey between 1996-1997 that indicated a relationship between the government, the armed forces, and organized crime. The scandal surfaced with a planned car crash on 3 November 1996, near Susurluk, in the province of Balıkesir. The victims included the deputy chief of the Istanbul police, a parliament deputy who led a powerful clan, and a criminal on the Interpol's red list.
The state was engaged in an escalating low intensity conflict with the separatist, militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (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 National Security Council (NSC) about how to proceed was taking place. Doves such as president Turgut Özal and general Eşref Bitlis favored a non-military solution. However, both of these people died in 1993. The same year, the NSC prescribed a co-ordinated Black Operations campaign using special forces.[1][2]
Deputy prime minister Tansu Çiller tasked the police force, then under the leadership of Mehmet Ağar, with crippling the PKK and assassinating its leader, Abdullah Öcalan. The police unit responsible for this job was the Special Operations Department (Turkish: Özel Harekat Dairesi, ÖHD). Contract killer Abdullah Çatlı also took part. This caused consternation in the National Intelligence Organization (Turkish: Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT), which had formerly counted on Çatlı to undertake reprisals against the militant Armenian organization, ASALA. Especially concerned was Mehmet Eymür of the MİT's Operations/Counter-Terrorism Department, who had irreconcilable differences with Ağar.[3] The scandal has hence been pithily described as "the battle of the two Mehmets".[4]
Like many militant guerrilla groups, the PKK was funded by narcotics.[5] Instead of merely preventing the PKK from profiting from illegal activities, these factions fought over who would take its place.[6][7] Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak described the police camp as "pro-European", and the MİT camp as "pro-American".[8] The guilty pocketed billions of dollars in profits from the drug smuggling.[9] 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 War.[10][11] To put this into perspective the heroin trade, then worth $50 billion, exceeded the state budget of $48 billion.[12]: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.[11])
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 Party, DYP), and the sole survivor of the crash, chieftain Sedat Bucak, was released.[12]:588 Essentially, the perpetrators escaped justice.[13]
Some reforms were made; e.g., the intelligence agency was restructured to end the infighting (with Eymür's department entirely dismantled).[14]
The Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, the "Counter-Guerrilla", has been suspected of being involved in the scandal; some say it is at its heart.[14] Some hold that the scandal was made possible by the wresting control of the MIT away from military leadership in 1992.[6]
Who's who
- Mehmet Ağar. Interior Minister. Police chief until March 1995.
- Sedat Bucak. DYP Şanlıurfa MP, chieftain of a 20,000-strong village guard clan in Siverek.
- Abdullah Çatlı. Leader of the Grey Wolves, contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla.
- Ayhan Çarkın. Prominent member of the police force's Special Operations Department (Turkish: Özel Harekât Dairesi, ÖHD). Personally responsible for 1000 deaths.
- Tansu Çiller. Deputy prime minister, chairman of the DYP.
- Korkut Eken. 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. Chief of the MIT's Counter-Terrorism department.
- Lazım Esmaeili and Askar Simitko. Iranian MIT agents.
- 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. Deputy chief of the ÖHD.
- Gonca Us. Çatlı's lover; former beauty queen.
Background
PKK-Turkey conflict
Main article: Turkey–Kurdistan Workers Party conflict
The fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (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 Şırnak. The PKK essentially controlled the towns of Şırnak and Cizre 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 catching members of the PKK using special forces, comprehensive psychological warfare, and a revamping of the military's inventory.[16][1]
The proposal brought before the National Security Council was initially rejected. Notable detractors were president Turgut Özal and general Eşref Bitlis, 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.[1] Çiller's rhetoric became more hawkish after this period.[17]
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 Çakıcı took part, along with 2,500–5,000 members of the special forces.[6] Many of these men were plucked from the ranks of the clandestine Counter-Guerrilla; the Turkish branch of the Operation Gladio.[18] The Counter-Guerrilla was originally established to prepare for the subversion of a possible Warsaw Pact invasion. However, once the USSR collapsed, the Counter-Guerrilla were used to fight the PKK.
It is alleged that during this period, a delegate including Çiller, Demirel, Hüsamettin Cindoruk (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.[notes 1] The officials assured these warlords, known to have lengthy criminal records,[notes 2] 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, howitzers, 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.[19]
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 Şahin, but he suffered a traffic accident and claimed to have lost his memory.[20][21]
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.[22] Can Dündar suggests that the weapons were used for political purposes other than to assassinate Öcalan.[23]
The chairman of the Workers' Party, Doğu Perinçek, alleged that "the Mafia-Gladio dictatorship"[24] was subordinate to Çiller and Ağar.[9]
Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak said that Ağar's gang aimed to create a state within a state, complete with a shadow army (the village guard system), and intelligence organization, inside the police force. The MİT purged the gang in a crash that was passed off as an accident.[25]
Causes of the scandal
According to Eymür, Susurluk was set in motion by the narcotics-related murder of two Iranians, Askar Simitko and Lazım Esmaeili in 1995. Simitko and Esmaeili were moles working for the MİT inside SAVAMA.[26] However, the MİT was not aware of their drug smuggling, which resulted in their death due to a nonpayment of a "tribute".[27]
The scandal surfaced after a car, carrying Abdullah Çatlı, Sedat Bucak, 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.[28]
The Prosecutor's Report said that the passengers in the car were on their way to stage an assassination.[29]
Turf war
The origins of the turf war date back to the reprisal operations in the 1980s against the militant Armenian organization, ASALA. Former president Kenan Evren ordered the MİT to organize a special forces 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.[30][31][notes 3]
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.[8] Once a Counter-Terrorism department was established in the MİT by 1996, Çatlı's unit came to be perceived as a competitor.[32]
Fikri Sağlar of the Republican People's Party (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 (Turkish: Kamu Güvenlik Başkanlığı, curiously shortening to KGB). Upon hearing news of unsavory activity from the KGB, president Süleyman Demirel 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 Eken as someone who was knowledgeable about Eymür. The scandal happened only because of Çiller's incompetence, said Sağlar.[11][33]
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.[34]
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.[9] According to government reports, the Söylemez Gang had arms, explosives, DM 186,500 and TL 155,200,000.[35]
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.[9]
Drug trafficking
![[Image: CIA-SWAsia-Heroin-2007.gif]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CIA-SWAsia-Heroin-2007.gif)
The heroin transportation route. Its European leg, nicknamed "the Balkan route", passes through Turkey.[36]
According to Interpol, "Turkey is a major staging area and transportation route for heroin destined for European markets."[37] The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimated the 1997 volume of the Turkish heroin traffic at 4-6 tons per month.[36]
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 money is tapped by the gangs as "commission"; a market on the order of $80 billion (1997).[38] According to Doğu Perinçek, the lure of heroin proved irresistible to the state, which suffered a $40-50 billion loss in trade with Iraq due to the U.N. embargo and the Gulf War.[39][10]
The biggest drug cartel was lead by Hüseyin Baybaşin. The U.K. National Crime Squad estimated that 90% of the heroin in the United Kingdom (25–35 tonnes annually in the late 90s) 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.[40]
Baybaşin said the most important state official involved in controlling the heroin trade was Şükrü Balcı, who was then chief of the Istanbul police.[12]:598
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[12]: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), 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[notes 4] to support Ağar's DYP campaign.[41] 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.[42] 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.[41]—Hüseyin Baybaşin, Bovenkerk and Yeşilgöz, 1998: 273-4[12]:598
After Topal's capture, his friend Haluk Koral called Eymür for help. Topal had also been kidnapped by police chief İbrahim Şahin priorly.[41]
Yaprak was convicted in 1997 for involvement in the assassination of Gaziantep Bar lawyer Burhan Veli Torun, and released due to an amnesty law (Turkish: Şartlı Salıverilme Yasası). In 2002, he was re-imprisoned after being caught with 5 million pills of Captagon. He died in prison, January 2004.[43]
A market in the southeast town of Lice was destroyed by fire. Deputy Fikri Fikri Sağlar alleged that Lice was a center of drug processing, and that the factory was moved to Elazığ.[11]
Gambling and money laundering
The proceeds from drugs entered the market through casinos.[36]
The "casino king" Ömer Lütfü Topal was one of the key figures in this aspect of the scandal.
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).[44]
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.[36]
Extrajudicial killings
Prime minister Çiller sanctioned the killing of businessmen who were suspected of lending financial support to the PKK.[45]
The victims included "casino king" Ömer Lütfü Topal, Savaş Buldan, and Behçet Cantürk.[46]
Police chief Avci said that the gangs fell into infighting after alleged PKK financiers Behcet Canturk and Savas Buldan were assassinated, as the gangs had completed their mission of dismantling the PKK's financial foundation.[6]
The police force's Special Operations Department (Turkish: 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.[46]
Brigadier General Veli Küçük, who was Giresun'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.[47] Küçük denies JİTEM's existence to this day,[48] although there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence to the contrary.[7]
Azerbaijan coup plot
The prime minister's gang planned to depose Azerbaijan president Haydar Aliyev on 13-17 March 1995.[47] 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.[49][50]
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 OMON 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.[51] The KGB/FSB and CIA closely monitored the events.[49]
The coup was foiled after the MİT tipped off President Süleyman Demirel on 10 March 1995 and he called Aliyev.[9]
Elçibey was an ideological ally of Alparslan Türkeş, who harbored aspirations of creating a Turkic state stretching across the Caucasus. 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.[52]
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 fund.[52]
Chronology
A brief summary follows:[53]
3 November 1996A traffic accident in Susurluk near the city of Balikesir, in which Abdullah Çatlı, a former ultra-rightist militant wanted by police for multiple murders and drug trafficking; Huseyin Kocadag, a senior police official; and a beauty queen are killed and Sedat Bucak, a Parliament deputy from the DYP is injured. The accident creates political uproar and some charge that this incident highlights the illegal relationship between state officials and the mobsters. 8 November 1996Interior Minister Mehmet Agar, smarting under an opposition and media campaign against alleged police links with the underground crime bosses after the car accident in Susurluk, resigns and is promptly replaced by Meral Aksener, a female politician from the DYP. 12 November 1996Parliament rules for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to probe into links between senior police officials, organized crime bosses and politicians exposed the Susurluk accident. 22 November 1996Suleyman Demirel, who at the time was the President of Turkey, brings party leaders together at a round table summit to seek a consensus on a method of investigating alleged state-mafia connections unearthed after the breaking of the Susurluk scandal. 5 December 1996Recently appointed Interior Minister Aksener explains that she discharged Istanbul Chief of Police Kemal Yazicioglu and several Special Team members. Moreover, acting Police Security Department Chief Hanefi Avci was discharged. 11 December 1996Agar and Bucak are stripped of their immunities in a vote in the Parliamentary general assembly. 10 January 1997The Parliamentary Investigation Commission set up after the accident listens to 41 people, among whom were Bucak and Agar, as witnesses. Later, the chairman of the Commission, Mehmet Elkatmis, apparently says, "I got confused." 13 January 1997The Istanbul State Security Court (DGM) had ÖHD members Carkin, Ersoy and Yorulmaz are taken into custody. 14 January 1997Sedat Bucak's driver Abdulgani Kizilkaya, Mustafa Altunok and Enver Ulu are arrested in connection with the Susurluk incident. 23 January 1997Photographs showing Abdullah Catli, one of those killed at Susurluk and the one who was wanted for murder, together with special team members were published in a newspaper. These historical documents were evidence of relations between police and fugitives from the law. 11 March 1997Special Operations Department head Ibrahim Sahin is arrested. He is put in Metris prison together with special team members. 26 May 1997Susurluk truck driver Hasan Gokce was sentenced to pay damages. 22 June 1997Yasar Oz and Abdulgani Kizilkaya were set free. 19 September 1997Police and politicians accused in the Susurluk scandal were absolved. 24 November 1997Motherland Party (ANAP) Chairman Mesut Yilmaz is attacked in Budapest in which his nose is broken. It was claimed that he was attacked because he had delved to foar into Susurluk. 8 December 1997Judge Akman Akyurek, who helped to prepare the documents related to the Susurluk case and is investigating the criminal gang and its relationship with the state, is the victim of an automobile accident just like Susurluk. 6 February 1998Narcotics smuggler Sami Hostan was arrested. 4 May 1998Hostan was set free. 16 August 1998Çakıcı was arrested in France.
Car crash
The scandal began after a Mercedes 600 SEL owned by Bucak crashed into a truck near Çatalceviz, Susurluk in the Balıkesir province in Turkey. The crash took place on 3 November 1996 at around 19:25.[54]
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.[55]
Evidence seized at the crash site indicated that Çatlı had been carrying:[54]
- diplomatic credentials, 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.[56]
- numerous 9mm Beretta and Saddam (Beretta 92) pistols, one .22 caliber Beretta with a silencer, and two Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns.
- two listening devices.
- a cache of narcotics.
- thousands of U.S. dollars.
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.[notes 5] 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.[60] 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.[61]
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.[62] His truck (a 1968 Ford) was foreclosed after he failed to pay his taxes.[63]
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 state".[64]
Reaction
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.[9]
Since 1950, people having been talking about Counter-Guerrillas, gladiators, 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 Ağar on Operation Gladio and the Counter-Guerrilla (29 June 1998), [65]
—Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar on Operation Gladio and the Counter-Guerrilla (29 June 1998), [65]
We will follow the facts wherever they may lead. No-one can over up Susurluk!
—President Süleyman Demirel.[66]
—President Süleyman Demirel.[66]
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 Çiller likening detractors to traitors.[67]
—Deputy Prime Minister Tansu Çiller likening detractors to traitors.[67]
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 Çiller on contract killer Abdullah Çatlı.[55][68]
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 Wolves leadership, and currently a columnist for Zaman.[69][70] Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy Tuğrul Türkeş alleges that Türköne was subordinate to Çatlı.[71]—Deputy Prime Minister Tansu Çiller on contract killer Abdullah Çatlı.[55][68]
Alparslan Türkeş, of the fascist MHP, also spoke out in defense of Çatlı.[72] Meanwhile, party chairman Devlet Bahçeli vehemently denied any MHP involvement.[73]
On 15 January 1998, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit drew attention to skulduggery by JİTEM; the intelligence wing of the Gendarmerie.[74]
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.[75]
Civilian
Several demonstrations, some of which were proscribed, were organized in protest against the corruption and illegal activities uncovered by the investigations.[76] 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.[77] The Deputy Chair of the DYP, Mehmet Golhan, denounced the protestors as traitors, while prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, of the Welfare Party, called them "parasites and conspirators...who have nothing to do apart from intrigue".[78]
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.[79]
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 (Turkish: Başbakanlık Teftiş Kurulu Başkanı), Kutlu Savaş. 12 of the 124 pages of this report, dated 22 January 1998, were classified.[notes 6] 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 Party leaders Tansu Çiller and Mehmet Ağar were at the heart of the scandal, and personally responsible for the "politics and economy becoming Mafia-like".[80] 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.[81] Ağar kept mum, revealing only that he had acted in accordance with the NSC's plan (from 1993).
If a super-prosecutor like di Pietro came forward in Turkey, tomorrow he would be dragged through Taksim Square as an enemy of the nation.
—Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak on why the investigation failed (cf. mani pulite).[82]
MİT report—Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak on why the investigation failed (cf. mani pulite).[82]
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Turkish Wikisource has original text related to this article: Susurluk Raporu
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.[42]
Inspection Board report
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 governor Ünal Erkan.[83]
- Passports and police identity cards were issue recklessly by the Ankara police.[84]
- 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.[3] Eymür also called Meral Akşener, Tolga Şakir Atik, Adil Öngen, and Ağar.[85]
- Ömer Lütfü Topal's partner Ali Fevzi Bir is connected to Abdullah Çatlı, and policemen Oğuz Yorulmaz and Mustafa Altunok.[85]
- Convicted murderer Mahmut Yıldırım, code name Yeşil (Green), was a MİT agent who had infiltrated the mafia.[86] 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.[87] 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.[88]
Parliamentary report
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.[6]
Elkatmış said that the Chief of the General Staff, İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, prevented him from obtaining Küçük's testimony, saying that there was no need.[89]
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.[90]
Aftermath
The European market for heroin contracted as other drugs, esp. cocaine and ecstacy, took over.[12]:598 In 2008, the Istanbul police seized 11 tons of drugs, 3.2 of which was heroin.[91]
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.[89] One of its key figures, Tuncay Güney, 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.[21]
Öcalan evaded assassination after a television reporter, Yalçın Küçük, publicized the plan on the PKK's TV channel, MED-TV.[92] Küçük was also detained in the Ergenekon investigation.
Arrests and convictions
- Oğuz Yorulmaz. Arrested 13 January 1997 and sentenced to 4 years in prison.[46]
- Sami Hoştan. Arrested 6 February 1998, released 4 May 1998.[53]
- İbrahim Şahin. Convicted on 12 February 2001 to 6 years in prison.[53]
- Korkut Eken. Convicted on 12 February 2001 to 6 years in prison.[53]
- 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.[93] Eymür eventually found residence in McLean, Virginia; the seat of the CIA. He faces charges of revealing state secrets and spying for the United States.[94] Ataç too has been labeled a CIA asset.[95]
A Draft Law on Struggling With Organized Crime and another draft on the legalization of JİTEM, allowing the Gendarmerie to legally carry out intelligence activities, were also prepared as consequences of this scandal.[96]
Çiller ordered the casinos closed.[97]
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:[98]
- 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.
Çakıcı's arrest
During Şenkal Atasagun's restructuring of the MİT, Yavuz Ataç was exiled to Beijing on 24 October 1997 for involvement with the mafia. The next month, Ataç handed Çakıcı the red passport that allowed him to travel freely.[6]
Çakıcı was arrested on 16 August 1998 in France,[101] carrying a diplomatic passport, after he allegedly threatened potential buyers of the Turkish Commerce Bank (Turkish: 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 Italy on a visa given to him at the Italian consulate.[12]:599
CHP deputy Fikri Sağlar alleges that Çakıcı deliberately chose to be apprehended in France, a country with a developed judicial system, 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.[11]
Ataç had originally planned to give the passport to Mehmet Can Kulaksızoğlu, the fugitive leader of the Turkish Revenge Brigade and suspected mastermind behind the assassination attempt on Human Rights Association chairman Akın Birdal.[95]
Çakıcı's arrest was timed to coincide with the wedding of Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar's son. Presidents Evren and Demirel 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.[6]
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"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.
"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.