MURDER IN ANATOLIA - European Stability Initiative - ESI

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testified that Aral had told him that he was “a leading power behind the Zirve publishing
house incident, that he was in contact with certain state circles, that one of them was JITEM
leader Veli Kucuk, and that he was not alone.”
“[Aral] said that he had organized some youngsters; that he had psychologically prepared
the Zirve publishing incident; [and] that he had later come to Adiyaman.” 212
Kartal told the court: “Besides Veli Kucuk, as far as I remember [Aral] also mentioned a
person called Muzaffer.” 213 Kartal stated that Aral had himself arrested on purpose in
Adiyaman by openly carrying the Kalashnikov in order to be in jail at the time of the Malatya
murders. 214
Varol Bulent Aral, who was present in court at the request of the judge, started yelling at the
end of Kartal‟s testimony. He was removed from the courtroom by force. 215 The judge
ordered Aral‟s arrest. Aral was again a suspect. 216
Erhan Ozen, who had told Malatya prosecutors that he had worked as an informal
intelligence officer with the secret Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter Terrorism
Department (JITEM) between 1997 and 2005, was the next to testify. Ozen, already a witness
in the Hrant Dink murder trial, is currently an inmate at the Iskilip Prison (in the province of
Corum). His activities at JITEM, he had said, had been coordinated by former gendarmerie
general Veli Kucuk and former gendarmerie general Levent Ersoz, both later indicted as part
of the Ergenekon case. 217 Levent Ersoz had been gendarmerie commander in Turkey‟s
Kurdish region between 2002 and 2004 and a former head of the gendarmerie intelligence
department. 218
According to Ozen, “the Malatya operation was undertaken to create conditions for a
coup.” 219 Varol Bulent Aral, he testified, had played a key role.
“I know that Varol Bulent Aral was in contact with Veli Kucuk, receiving orders [from
him]. I do not want to explain how I got to know this … From Veli Kucuk, Muzaffer
[Tekin], Siran and Yusuf [both are code names] I heard the name Varol Bulent Aral in
Malatya. In these conversations it was said that he was helping those in Malatya.” 220
During his statement to the prosecutors on 13 October 2010, two days before the court
hearing, Ozen also testified that plans were made to damage the government‟s reputation.
“While I was working unofficially for JITEM, I knew that Muzaffer Tekin and persons
with the codenames Yusuf and Siran were planning plots to put the government in a
212 th
Protocol of the 29 Court Hearing, 15 October 2010, p. 2.
213 th
Protocol of the 29 Court Hearing, 15 October 2010, p. 2.
214 th
Protocol of the 29 Court Hearing, 15 October 2010, p. 3.
215 th
Protocol of the 29 Court Hearing, 15 October 2010, p. 6.
216 th
Protocol of the 29 Court Hearing, 15 October 2010, p. 7.
217
Levent Ersoz is a former gendarmerie commander based in Sirnak and Diyarbakir as head of JITEM between
2002 and 2004.
218
Ahmet Insel and Ali Baramoglu (editors), Almanac Turkey 2006 – 2008, Security Sector and Democratic
Oversight, Tesev Publications, August 2010, p. 182.
219 th
Protocol of the 29 Court Hearing, 15 October 2010, p. 5.
220 th
Protocol of the 29 Court Hearing, 15 October 2010, p. 5.
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