Ergenekon Indictment Mentions Political Murders and Disappearances

The second Ergenekon indictment, accepted by the Istanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court on Wednesday (25 March), cites the evidence of secret witness “Emek”, who says that Kurdish intellectual Musa Anter was killed by a “Star Team” under Veli Küçük, who is a suspect in the Ergenekon trial.

Anter and Sincar victims of organised murder

The secret witness says that he was told by former PKK member and later hitman for the clandestinge JİTEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence Anti-Terrorism Unit), Alaattin Kanat, that he had been involved in the killing of Anter, as well as former MP Mehmet Sincar of the Democracy Party (DEP).

This information is cited in the part of the indictment about retired general Veli Küçük, considered by many to be one of the leading figures in the clandestine ultra-nationalist Ergenekon organisation.

Kanat’s name has been mentioned in connection with the murder of the MP from Mardin, southeastern Turkey, for a long time. The MP was killed on 4 September 1993.

His wife Cihan Sincar said that she met Alaattin Kanat in the MP’s police car at the airport and at the police station after the murder. Sincar had come to Batman to investigate the murder of a Habip Kılıç.

In a report about the Susurluk case, in which many clandestine mafia-government connections started to emerge, then Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz was sent a report in which a prisoner in Diyarbakır prison was cited as giving the names of four people who had planned and carried out the murder. Kanat was one of those names, and the witness said that he had been handed a “signed guarantee” of protection afterwards.

Another one of the four, code-named “Green”, has been implicated in the murders of Musa Anter and also Vedat Aydın, Diyarbakır’s province party chair of the People’s Labour Party (HEP).

Information about this team carrying out these murders had also been in a book written by Soner Yalçın, “The Confessions of Captain Ersever”. JITEM Commander Cem Ersever was himself killed in 1993.

Cihan Sancar has attempted to become a third party plaintiff in the Ergenekon case, but her application was rejected in October 2008.

Connection to disappearance of HADEP politicians

The Ergenekon indictment also speaks about the disappearance of two politicians of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HADEP).

Again a secret witness is cited, saying that Ergenekon suspect Osman Gürbüz was sent to the Cizre andSilopi area (both districts of the southeastern province of Şırnak) by General Levent Ersöz (also a suspect) to take part in questioning people, and that the disappearance of two HADEP members took place at that time.

On 25 January 2001, HADEP members Ebubekir Deniz and Serdar Tanış disappeared after being called to the gendarmerie for questioning. They have never been found.

"Empire of Fear"

Retired general Levent Ersöz was JITEM commander for the province of Şırnak at the time.

Tanış’s brother Müdür Tanış spoke to bianet, saying that he could not remember Osman Gürbüz, but that there had been many JITEM members in the area at the time, all of them using code names.

He added, “The person who needs to talk is Levent Ersöz, because he was at the head of everything. He is the most important name in the event.”

People speak of an “empire of fear” that reigned during Ersöz’ duty in the area.

For Tanış, the trial of Ersöz, as well as research into the fate of those who disappeared is encouraging.

“At that time, there was no possibility of seeking redress. They took them away and never brought them back. You could not question anything. Now something is changing, it is being talked about.”

Many more bodies...

However, he also suspects that the death well excavations might have been tampered with, pointing to the delay in the opening of the wells and to the fact that they are on military ground.

Like many others, he believes that many bodies could be found in the graveyard of the poor in Silopi, as well as other areas outside of Cizre. “There are many people there who were killed and thrown there. They threw some of them into the river. They were never taken to account. All the people here know how common it was.” (TK/AG)