UNRESOLVED MURDERS, JUSTICE AND A NEW TURKEY
by MARKAR ESAYAN
Today’s Zaman
Nov 14 2011
Turkey
When the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to office —
before it really started to wield power — we witnessed how the deep
and bureaucratic state showed strong resistance to it, wasting the
country’s energy and resources.
Now, looking back to this short history, one doubts whether all those
developments were real or just a nightmare.
The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), an institution that had been grabbing
the lion’s share of the country’s budget until very recently and
using those funds without any inspection, was found to be plotting
to overthrow the ruling AK Party by preparing incredibly scandalous
plans at its headquarters. We have seen a series of not only coup
plans brought to daylight by the Nokta weekly — with such names
as AyıÅ~_ıgı (Moonlight), Sarıkız (Blonde Girl), Yakamoz (Sea
Sparkle) and Eldiven (Glove), which were planned between 2003 and
2004, as we learned from the now infamous coup diaries — but also
of continuously updated coup plots that have now come to be known as
Balyoz (Sledgehammer).
The third indictment concerning the Sledgehammer coup plan was
recently prepared –based on documents seized at the Gölcuk Naval
Command — and sent to court for merger with the main trial. It
may sound unbelievable, but up until two years ago in this country,
which saw three full-fledged coups in its past, some members of the
military — who were supposed to perform their duties upon being
paid by the taxes we pay — planned to shoot down our own warplanes,
spark a war between our country and Greece, shell some mosques,
kill members of non-Muslim minorities and put the blame on Muslims,
all just to overthrow the ruling AK Party. No one should scorn these
plans just because they could not be implemented. Indeed, you will
see that the Council of State attack, the killing of priest Father
Andrea Santoro, the murder of Hrant Dink and the massacre at the
Zirve Publishing House in Malatya were actually performed by agents
of the deep state and possibly as part of such a coup plan, if the
courts can boldly take actions to investigate them.
On the other hand, there is a probe into unresolved murders launched
by the Ankara specially authorized prosecutor in connection with
confessions made by a former police officer from the special ops
unit, Ayhan Carkın. This investigation also brought to the agenda
two National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) reports, partially
discovered during the infamous Susurluk scandal and discussed at
the Cankaya presidential palace during the term of former President
Suleyman Demirel. These reports, which had been submitted personally by
then İstanbul Police Chief Kemal Yazıcıoglu to then Prime Minister
Necmettin Erbakan, said unresolved murders of Kurdish businessmen,
particularly Omer Lutfu Topal, had been committed by the state. At
that time, Yazıcıoglu was suddenly removed from office and the
reports covered up.
These reports also said that those who had been involved in these
unresolved murders had been released after being taken to Ankara thanks
to an intervention by Sedat Bucak and Mehmet Agar, and that they —
the contract killers — were later employed as bodyguards for Bucak.
The prosecutors are interrogating these guys now. Even, Sedat
Peker, a jailed mafia godfather, confessed as an “insider” that the
National Security Council (MGK) had arranged the killings of Kurdish
businessmen. “This is a truth known to everyone. Don’t you know?” he
challenged the prosecutors while making this confession.
As noted by my dear friend Adem Yavuz Arslan in his article titled
“The DDK’s report and every road lead to the MGK” and published in the
Bugun daily, the MGK represents the common junction for the killings
of the missionaries and journalist Hrant Dink and for the murders of
Kurdish businessmen.
“In my book ‘Bi Ermeni Var: Hrant Dink Operasyonu’nun Å~^ifreleri’
[There’s this Armenian: The Codes of the Dink Operation], which
explained in detail how the MGK had put a handful of missionaries in
the spotlight in early 2003, paving the way for the raising of Ogun
Samast-like people via fabricated fears, I published a confidential
document,” Arslan says, and underlines a very important point. Will the
State Audit Institution (DDK), which is currently investigating Dink’s
murder, be able to identify the role of the state, i.e., the MGK,
in this murder, thereby contributing to the resolution of the murder?
Or will this role be covered up, as was done at the Cankaya summit
held on Dec. 22, 1996?
Today, the trial concerning Dink’s death resumes. It will be concluded
after several hearings. The people who might have helped Samast on
the day of the murder were identified in video recordings. The court
hearing the case has repeatedly demanded that the Telecommunications
Directorate (TÄ°B) send the records of cellular phone calls made in
the vicinity of the crime scene. But TÄ°B has refused to send them,
first claiming that they do not have them and then on the grounds
that giving them would violate individuals’ privacy. If these records
are sent to the court, a significant portion of the murder could be
illuminated. Under the law, these records will be deleted in 67 days.
TÄ°B is subordinate to the Ministry of Transportation.
Since 2002, when the AK Party took office, many offenses and murders
have been committed in order to lay the groundwork for an eventual
military takeover. Will we live together in darkness with a reflex
to protect the state, as was the case in 1996, or will we turn a new
page for a clean future?
This is the real question these trials pose for us.