The
Turkish National Security Council Okayed the Death Squads
by
Ismet Berkan
Monday,
December 9, 1996
Radikal
(There are a number of inaccuracies in this
piece. One thing is quite clear: the author cites documents to discredit
his Turkish subjects, but he relies on complete hearsay to do the same with the
Kurdish side of his argument. But because it was allowed to be printed in
Turkey, we thought you should see it.)
In essence everything can be traced
to the beginning of 1992. Then the Turkish Chief of Staff adopted new
strategic measures in its fight against the PKK. Up until then the
Turkish soldiers would respond to the attacks and once the fighting was over
pursue the attackers. It was decided then that the Turkish soldiers needed
to be trained like the guerrilla forces and do the same by attacking them
before their attacks on the Turkish installations. These strategic
changes soon began to bear fruit. The attackers now were the Turkish
soldiers not the PKK. The PKK was on the run and the Turkish soldiers
were on their tail.
Over time, the PKK withdrew from
its bases among the population centers and took to the mountains to hide
itself. But the government of Turkey continued to go on with its war on
terrorism. This time, the [Kurdish] villages were evacuated to deny the
PKK its logistical base through which it was sustaining itself. These
measures did weaken the PKK considerably and there were those who thought that
[indeed] it would "whither away."
These measures, however, did not
just envision the plan of turning the conflict in the southeast [Turkey] into a
"low intensity conflict." A decision was taken to
"actively" pursue the termination of the sources of help that were
sustaining this source of terror. Then some could even project that by
"Spring [of 1992]," this thing would come to an end.
The plan that was to be implemented
was actually a brain child of the British. This new tactic had two
legs. The first required that you catch the terrorist before he/she
commits his/her deed and if need be you kill him/her. The second leg of the
tactic required that you equate all those who support these terrorists as
terrorists.
These strategic changes were on the
agenda of the National Security Council towards the end of 1992.
The author of these lines was
permitted to see a National Security Council document which laid down the plans
for the formation of an organization of this nature with the names of some
individuals who could take part in it. Abdullah Catli was one of those
names. The others included the members of the Special Teams [crack
Turkish units], some soldiers and some friends of Mr. Catli.
This new tactic ran into opposition
at first at the National Security Council. The President of Turkey,
Turgut Ozal, and the Commander of the Turkish Armed Forces, Esref Bitlis
opposed the suggestion that the state work together with the fugitives.
Perhaps it is not unrelated to
this, but, it is, an interesting coincidence that the opponents of this plan,
General Bitlis and President Ozal, soon died. One had an accident; the other
had a heart attack.
Suleyman Demirel became President
and Tansu Ciller the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Ciller in her first
days was rather soft. She would mention the Bask model as a solution and
would pay visits to the leaders of the opposition parties.
But suddenly Prime Minister Ciller
changed. She became the toughest of all and an inimitable hawk
beside. She would always say, "We will eradicate them and we will
eradicate them." She would not say anything else. It was obvious
that she believed that it would soon end.
This plan no longer had opponents
and it could again be discussed at the National Security Council. It was
discussed and approved in the fall of 1993. You may want to call it
"the Gladio [or the Death Squads]," I will call it a "secret
organization" which was established by a decision of the assembled.
The Turkish government, according
to figures released then, was spending some 8 billion dollars annually to
combat the PKK. The PKK too was not far behind in its expenditures: some
of the Turkish officials at the top were quoting a figure of 3 billion dollars.
When Mrs. Ciller became the Prime
Minister, the PKK had two sources of income: 1. drugs and extortion
money. 2. the donations that were being collected in Europe.
At first, the European money dried
up. At first Germany and then France closed down the associations
belonging to the PKK and prevented them from collecting money. PKK in
both countries went underground.
There was also the drug
money. Here then the secret organization needed to display its work.
We all remember the invocations of
Prime Minister Ciller in those days. "We are going to dry up the
sources of support for PKK."
Behcet Canturk, Savas Buldan, Yusuf
Ekinci, Haci Karay, Adnan Yildirim, Medet Serhat and Omer Lutfu Topal.
All these names one way or another
were implicated with the drug trafficking. None is present to shed some
light on this issue. They either were selling drugs on behalf of PKK or
were forced to share part of their income with it. In any case, some
money was earmarked for PKK. All were put out of commission [murdered].
Ozgur Ulke, the daily newspaper,
was the voice of PKK. Abdullah Ocalan would write articles in it with a
nom de guerre, Ali Firat. The headquarters of this paper in several
cities were bombed. According to some, some of the bomb throwers
were caught by Istanbul Police, but they were released immediately by orders
that came from the "top".
I write these lines based on the
document that was shared with me with the condition that I do not make a copy
of it or take notes about it. I was told to read it fast and I did.
I have weighed the accuracy of the
information in the document relative to the events that have taken place [over
the course of these years] and wish that the "news" was
incorrect. I have no doubts that today, as soon as this writing reaches
you, you will also be told that it is completely untrue. My only wish is that,
I hope, those who will wrong me will tell you the truth.
(Translated by the staff of the
American Kurdish Information Network)