MURDER IN ANATOLIA - European Stability Initiative - ESI

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“They said we should raid with weapons. I asked what we should do if there were others
present there ... They told me that we should also kill them. They said I would not be
caught if I listened to them, but if I didn‟t listen to them and we were caught, we would
be released within two years. Later I should bring the two youngsters to Santral Hill and
kill them too.” 144
Dogan explained that a second meeting followed with ex-MP Namik Hakan Durhan and
Burhan Coskun, the local Ulku Ocaklari president. “They said they were going to have me
carry out this activity: the world would think it was them but that no one would be able to
prove it,” he told the court. 145 One and a half months after these meetings, Metin Dogan went
to Mersin, where his brother happened to be killed in an unrelated incident. Dogan killed his
brother‟s murderer and went to jail. He told the court about a message he received from a
prison guard in January 2007:
“This guard approached me in prison in Mersin. He said that Namik [Hakan Durhan, the
former MHP Member of Parliament] had sent his greetings and asked whether I needed
anything. He also told me that he and Namik had no secrets and that the job that I was
supposed to do will be done by Emre Gunaydin and that I should be quiet.” 146
Metin Dogan claims that Emre‟s uncles “were known in Malatya province. They were like a
criminal gang.” 147 (When asked to do so, however, Dogan could not recall their names 148 )
Dogan also claimed that Ulku Ocaklari and the police “are very close. Many policemen come
and go. [Burhan] Coskun told me to commit the murders with a knife, because, he said, it
would be too difficult to arrange things with the police if it was done with a gun.” 149
Ex-MP Namik Hakan Durhan was later questioned by the Malatya prosecutors. The content of
his testimony is not part of the court files. 150 In May 2008 Durhan reacted to Metin Dogan‟s
accusations in an open letter:
“I was not in Malatya when this conversation was supposed to have happened ... This
information is completely baseless and falsified. It is defamation against me and against
the party of which I am a member.” 151
So far, nobody from Malatya Ulku Ocaklari has been called to testify in court.
f. “I am the number one in Ergenekon”
Emre Gunaydin first told prosecutors about Varol Bulent Aral, a mysterious man about whom
little is known, in 2007. Emre, who met Aral while both worked at the Malatya Birlik
Newspaper in summer 2006, claimed that Aral had called on him to put a stop to the activities
of Christian missionaries out to destroy the country. “Come on and say stop,” Aral allegedly
144 Santral Hill is about 4 km north east of Malatya centre.
145 Protocol of the 9 th Court Hearing, 4 July 2008, pp. 6-7.
146 Protocol of the 9 th Court Hearing, 4 July 2008, p. 7.
147 Protocol of the 9 th Court Hearing, 4 July 2008, p. 9.
148 Protocol of the 9 th Court Hearing, 4 July 2008, p. 9.
149 Protocol of the 9 th Court Hearing, 4 July 2008, p. 8.
150 ESI Interview with Umut Sahin, Association of Protestant Churches, Ankara, 5 October 2010.
151 Ankara Haber Ajansi, “Eski Milletvekili Durhan Hakkindaki Iddialari Reddetti” [Former MP Durhan
renounced the allegations against him], 14 May 2008, http://www.haberler.com/eski-milletvekili-durhanhakkindaki-iddialari-haberi/.
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