The Military Court attached to the Van Gendarmerie Corps Command Post have decided to ask the Military Prosecutor for the General Staff report about the eight soldiers kidnapped by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in Hakkari province in the eastern Turkey, which was published by daily Taraf under the title “Dağlıca ambush was known.”

The report published by Taraf on June 25, 2008 had made it clear that the authorities had known ahead of time about the Dağlıca ambush that had cost the lives of 13 soldiers and led to the kidnapping of eight.

“Asking for the report formalizes our demand”

Dinçel Aslan, the lawyer of Ramazan Yüce, told bianet that the fact the military asked for the report was important for reaching the truth and formalizing their demand regarding his client that he had reported the ambush, but these reports had been destroyed.

The accused were not in the latest trial at the Van 4th High Criminal Court on August 15, but they were defended by five lawyers. Complying with the demand of the defense lawyers Aslan and Ali Fahir Kayacan, the court decided to ask for the General Staff report that had been published in daily Taraf.

But the court refused to ask, in this third hearing, for the youtube images in which the brigade commander major colonel Onur Dirik can be seen reading the diary of the second lieutenant who lost his life.

Moreover, the Office of the Military Prosecutor informed the court that no measures were taken regarding colonel Dirik. It also refused the demand by Zahir Soğanda, the lawyer of private soldiers Mehmet Şenkul and Fuat Odabaş, to remove the partial publication ban. 

The court decided to ask for the statements of the eleven suspects who are on trial at Van’s 4th High Criminal Court  for “being a member of a terrorist organization, aiding and harboring the terrorist organization”, alleged to be connected with the ambush occurred on October 21, 2007, and hear the witnesses at the next hearing on November 21.

Taraf: The Dağlıca ambush was known

According to the documents published by daily Taraf, the information about where the ambush was to take place, its coordinates, and its time were in the intelligence report stamped urgent by the Van Gendarmerie Law and Order Corps Command Post in detail. (EÖ/EZÖ/TB)