Deep state terror news from Turkey

Weaving the Ergenekon web: first steps in Sept. 6-7 incidents It has become evident that there is a strong link between Topal Osman, who served as a commander of the presidential guard of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the Ergenekon terrorist organization because of a connection between retired Gen. Veli Küçük, currently under arrest for serving as a member of Ergenekon, and Osman. So what is this connection?

Küçük became a mysterious name in the provinces where he served. During his assignment in Nevşehir, prior to the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup, a substantial part of unresolved murders took place in that city and by residents of this province. Likewise, a number of murders were committed in the area surrounding Kocaeli while Küçük was posted in that city.

Küçük attempted to erect a statue of Osman in Giresun when he was serving there as regional commander of gendarmerie units. Was Osman a person whose statue should really be erected?

Veli Küçük

He asked this question in 1981 to the Turkish Historical Society’s (TTK) local branch associated with the Giresun Governor’s Office because there were already people in the city ready to declare Osman a hero; however, the society did not hold a positive view of this controversial figure. But after Gen. Kenan Evren, the leader of the Sept. 12 military coup, praised Osman during his visit to this city in 1983, local administrators launched ceremonies in honor of Osman in 1987.

Attempts to erect the statue were made after Küçük assumed duty as regional commander of the gendarmerie units in Giresun.

Topal Osman

Pro-Ergenekon actors viewed Osman as a patriotic man who killed and was killed for his homeland. Küçük, who sponsored the erecting of Osman’s statue in Giresun in 2001, failed in his attempt after strong opposition from Mayor Mehmet Işık; however, Ali Kara, the chairman of the local small businessmen group of Giresun, asked for its erection in 2007. Kara was one of the figures whose deposition was taken during the Ergenekon investigation.

Murder of Sabahattin Ali

On June 16, 1948, Sabahattin Ali, one of the great names of Turkish literature, was murdered. The murder was never resolved; however, Hıfzı Topuz, who published Ali’s biography, argued that the perpetrator of the murder was actually known. According to Topuz, the murder was the first act of global terrorism in Turkey.

Ali, known for his strong opposition to the state, was convicted of insulting Atatürk in one of his poems in 1932. He served time in the Konya and Sinop prisons but was released after a general amnesty granted on the 10th anniversary of the republic in 1933. Ali was murdered while trying to flee the country on April 1, 1948. His body was found on June 16. It became evident that Ali Ertekin, a smuggler, was the killer; however, the motive behind the murder still remains a mystery.

First Gladio action: Sept. 6-7 events

The Ergenekon investigation has helped Turkish society take a different look at a series of unresolved developments. Information and documents obtained during the investigation provided helpful details on what actually happened in the past. One of the incidents fully illuminated by the new information and documents is the Sept. 6-7 events.

6-7 September incidents.

It was argued that the events were plotted by the Special Warfare Unit. This argument was further strengthened because retired Capt. Fikret Emek, currently under arrest in connection with the Ergenekon investigation, was serving as chairman of the Military Mobility Investigation Board during the events. It is argued that the board was illegally established within the army in 1952 and that it created small cells to promote its cause.

The Sept. 6-7 events, which started after a newspaper headline said Atatürk’s home in Greece had been bombed by Greek militants, were plotted in these cells. The events were particularly important because they served as the first examples of social provocations fueled by the media in Turkey. The Turkish media continued to publish similar provocative headlines and reports in the aftermath of a number of events.

Gen. Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, who confessed to then Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit that the Special Warfare Unit existed, served on the board during the Sept. 6-7 events. In a 1991 interview with reporter Fatih Güllapoğlu, he said: “The Sept. 6-7 events were sponsored by the Special Warfare Unit. This was an awesome organization and it fulfilled its goals.” But the same events were used to justify the execution of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan after the military coup of May 27, 1960.

Adnan Menderes

Retired Capt. Fikret Emek, who was arrested in connection with the Ergenekon investigation because a large number of hand grenades were found at his mother’s house in Eskişehir, is known to have served in Manisa and Kars as regional chairman of the board.

The new documents concerning the Mobilization Inspection Board show that the board constituted the core of Gladio. The board was founded by Gen. Daniş Karabelen, who was trained in the US, after authorization by the National Security Board on Sept. 27, 1952.

Sixteen military officers who were sent to the US in 1948 for special warfare and strategy training served as the official core of the board. The officers included Karabelen, Turgut Sunalp, Ahmet Yıldız, Alparslan Türkeş, Suphi Karaman and Fikret Ateşdağlı.

Speaking to the Aksiyon newsweekly on May 12, 2008, Turkish Resistance Organization (TMT) coordinator İsmail Tansu confessed that the board was secretly founded within the General Staff upon a recommendation by the US.

Tansu’s memoirs and other sources indicate that the TMT was established in 1957 as part of Special Warfare Unit affiliated with the General Staff to resist against the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) in Cyprus. Tansu assumed the execution of activities and the coordination of the organization. The mobilization board was a sub-organization within the TMT.

The apparent goal of the organization was to prevent a probable Soviet invasion. Tansu, who also served as the commander for logistics in the organization, noted that only reliable members were admitted to the organization after a secret oath-taking ceremony, adding that most of the time, the members were picked from among officers in the military reserve. Tansu further said: “The members should be patriotic and nationalist. No member knew the others in the organization. Reserve officers were monitored during their service in the army, and when they were finally discharged, they were called for active duty and further training.”

The name of the board was changed to the Special Warfare Unit by Gen. Cihat Ayol in 1967, when the organization rid itself of coup-makers on May 27, 1960, and became a non-military organization.

The US was funding the board. Retired Gen. Kemal Yamak, who chaired the unit in the 1970s, explained that the US was making regular annual grants of $1 million. The weapons to be used in the event of a probable Soviet invasion were kept underground. There is an interesting similarity between the unit and the Ergenekon organization, whose members argue that the recently unearthed weaponry would be used for homeland defense.

The US stopped making these grants when bilateral relations deteriorated between Turkey and the US during the Ecevit government. Chief of General Staff Gen. Semih Sancar sought a payment from the secret funds that was subject to the approval of Bülent Ecevit. The prime minister demanded an explanation as to the purpose of the funds because he was unaware of the existence of a special warfare unit. This was the first time Ecevit suspected a contra-guerilla entity.

Kenan Evren

After his retirement, Gen. Evren, who led the military coup of Sept. 12, 1980, notes in his memoirs that he opposed the contra-guerilla activities of the Special Warfare Unit. Evren also says, “After becoming chief of general staff, I asked for the full return of this organization to its actual mission.” The General Staff officially confirmed the presence of the Special Warfare Unit when it declared on Nov 16, 1990, that the unit would be overhauled and reorganized in accordance with changes in military strategy and new developments in the world. In 1994, the General Staff changed the Special Warfare Unit into the Special Forces Unit.

In his book “NATO’s Secret Armies,” Swiss researcher Daniele Ganser showed that Gladio’s Turkish branch was the most influential of all. This must have been the reason for the failure to deal with it effectively in Turkey, while the other NATO member-countries took conclusive measures against local branches in their territories.

Since 1970s, these units, also called irregular forces, were held responsible for many incidents. It was frequently argued that these forces relied on intimidation, sabotage, infiltration and terror to provoke a state of warfare in times of peace.

It was also argued that what happened at a rally in Taksim in İstanbul on May 1, 1977, when 38 people were killed, was sponsored by the Special Warfare Unit.

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