Gendarme Commander Charged With Ordering Murders

Zekeriya Öz, prosecutor in the Ergenekon investigation, has been sent a letter by a person saying that they work in the Malatya province gendarmerie command's intelligence unit. In the letter, the person says, "If I say exactly what I know, I will be identified".

Ülger briefed on later victims

The letter claims that Colonel Mehmet Ülger briefed Kayseri Gendarmerie Region Command and the Gendarmerie General Command Auditing head one and a half months before the murder of three men at the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya. Ülger briefed them on the three men and their activities, presenting reports on them.

A copy of the letter has been sent to Malatya public prosecutor Şeref Gürkan.

Relations between gendarmerie and Abat

Ülger has been a witness at the ongoing murder trial at the Malatya 3rd High Criminal Court, as has Ruhi Abat, a research assistant at İnönü University's theology faculty. Abat came to the gendarmerie command both before and after the murders and spent hours with Ülger in his office. However, so the letter, none of these visits were registered.

The Malatya court has found that Abat spoke to several gendarmerie intelligence officers 1,415 times on his mobile phone in the six months prior to the murders. Abat claimed that a six-person group at the university's strategic development department did work on missionary activities and that the gendarmerie had asked them to inform their intelligence officers about missionary activities taking place.

The letter further said, "The murders had just taken place. Even before the police teams arrived at the scene, Mehmet Ülger had been informed by his superiors. This shows that Mehmet Ülger and some higher-ranking commanders knew that this would happen."

It is further claimed that Ülger and intelligence branch head gendarmerie Major Haydar Yeşil blamed groups among the personnel close to religious leader Fethullah Gülen for accusations against them that appeared in the press.

Ülger and Abat may become defendants

It is not clear yet whether the letter, written, so the author, "out of regret for some of the things I have done", is real or not. Should the court take it seriously, Ülger and Abat may be asked to appear in court again, and may become suspects or defendants.

On 18 April 2007, it is alleged that five young men entered the Zirve Publishing House and killed Tilman Ekkehart Geske, of German origin, and Necati Aydın and Uğur Yüksel. Two other undetained persons are defendants. (EÖ/AG)