In Turkey, Links Between Police, 

       Politicians and Criminals

          By STEPHEN KINZER
          December 31, 1996

          [I] STANBUL, Turkey -- As a lurid political scandal
              continues to unfold in Turkey, President Suleyman
          Demirel has denied that the current government uses
          death squads against its enemies and appealed for
          patience and restraint in the face of new disclosures.

          "I categorically reject the assumption or the claim that
          the state is in collaboration with gangs," Demirel said
          at a year-end news conference over the weekend. "Whoever
          used gangs instead of the legitimate state apparatus in
          carrying out certain tasks, that person committed a
          crime."

          "No one can cover up Susurluk," the president promised
          an increasingly cynical public. Susurluk is an Anatolian
          town that has become a generic noun referring to the
          spreading scandal, in which high officials are accused
          of having used criminal gangs over the last decade to
          attack personal enemies or groups that opposed the
          government.

          Near Susurluk, a Nov. 3 car crash killed a senior police
          official and a leading crime boss who is said to have
          committed political killings on behalf of past
          governments. The two were riding together in a
          Mercedes-Benz when it crashed into a slow-moving truck.
          Questions about what they were doing together have led
          to charges that recent governments were linked to crimes
          that include killings, extortion and multimillion-dollar
          heroin deals.

          Every new revelation about "Susurluk" seems to whet the
          public's appetite for more. But because some of the
          country's most prominent politicians are implicated, the
          government is nervously trying to contain the
          investigation.

          "Turkey is facing the greatest crisis of its 73 years as
          a republic," a former prime minister, Bulent Ecevit,
          said during a debate about the scandal in Parliament.

          As a result of investigations carried out since the
          crash, it has become clear that over the last two
          decades, some elements of the Turkish security apparatus
          developed a relationship with criminals, with official
          sanction. The criminals were reportedly assigned to
          perform killings and to carry out other attacks or what
          were seen as counterterrorist operations.

          Many Turks seem to accept the idea that their government
          might behave this way at moments of crisis, like the
          late 1970s, when terrorist gangs killed thousands of
          people in a struggle for political influence and the
          country was drifting toward chaos. But evidence suggests
          that at some time in the last five years, the criminal
          gangs began to work as enforcers for private interests
          tied to members of the political elite.

          Even in the land whose political structures gave rise to
          the term "byzantine," untangling these ties is proving a
          daunting challenge.

          Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan insists that he will
          get to the bottom of the scandal, but to do so he would
          have to risk the collapse of his government. His
          coalition partner, Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller, was
          prime minister from 1993 until the beginning of this
          year, a period during which pro-government death squads
          were reportedly vigorously active, and she is the
          subject of many accusations.

          Demirel called the leaders of major political parties to
          his residence last week for a "summit conference" to
          decide how the scandal should be investigated. The
          assembled leaders, who have been bitterly accusing one
          other of involvement in the scandal or coverup, were
          unable to agree on anything except to issue a statement
          asserting, "Trust placed in the democratic system should
          be preserved."

          Parliament has established a commission to probe the
          Susurluk scandal, but because the commission members
          come from parties whose leaders may themselves be
          implicated, some Turks are skeptical. Still, every
          witness makes headlines.

          On Thursday, a federal police official told the
          commission he knew of a case in which a police informer
          who had provided evidence against gangs was detained by
          the police and turned over to Abdullah Catli, who died
          in the Susurluk crash and whom he described as a leading
          crime boss. The informer was never seen again.

          Catli was reportedly a link in the chain that is said to
          have connected the government to gangsters. Partly
          because of his background as a heroin smuggler, some of
          those investigating the scandal believe that rivalry for
          control of the heroin trade became a factor in
          government corruption.

          This month, a 21-year-old woman was detained at the
          Istanbul airport while trying to bring $300,000 in
          foreign currency into the country. She reportedly told
          the police that the money was being laundered for heroin
          smugglers, and that they had arranged for her to carry
          suitcases of cash into Turkey more than 50 times without
          interference.

                 Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company