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Mysterious Military Commanders’ Deaths Remain Unsolved Amid Turkey Coup Wranggling
8 July 2009
As the debate on the recent parliamentary amendment to the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK) allowing the trial of military personnel in civilian courts continues, the question of the capability or will of military courts to examine the mysterious deaths of several commanders whose cases have remained “unsolved” remains at issue. Among those commanders who have died mysteriously while on active duty are Adana Regional Gendarmerie Commander Gen. Temel Cingöz , Tunceli Provincial Gendarmerie Commander Col. Kazim Çillioglu, Diyarbakir Regional Gendarmerie Commander Brig. Gen. Bahtiyar Aydin, Mardin Gendarmerie Legion Commander Col. Ridvan Özden and Col. Vural Berkay, who was shot dead during a military exercise known as Toros-2 in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) in 1997. Another well-known name is Gendarmerie Commander Gen. Esref Bitlis, who was killed in a plane crash allegedly while tracing questionable relations between the military and terrorists and other groups. Gen. Aydin, who had close relations with the public and did not approve of extra-judicial violence, was appointed in 1993 to the Diyarbakir Regional Gendarmerie. On Oct. 22 of the same year, he was assassinated as he stood in front of a military outpost. The blame for his death was laid on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). However, in an investigation into a gang called Yüksekova, a member of the gang testified that Aydin's assassination was the work of JITEM, a secret and illegal unit formed within the gendarmerie which was possibly originally intended to facilitate the military's fight against ethnic terrorism in the Southeast but which later became an instrument for terrorizing locals and a major player in the region's illegal commercial activities, including the cross-border drug and arms trades. Birsen Aydin, the brother of Gen. Aydin, has maintained since Aydin's death that the killing was an inside job. Col. Özden was declared dead following a clash with terrorists in 1995 in Mardin. Özden's wife, Tomris Özden, had expressed doubts at the time over the official story that her husband was killed in a clash with terrorists. Lately, a friend close to his family has also maintained that Özden was killed because he was preparing to expose files on assassinations and smuggling carried out by security forces. Another commander, Gen. Cingöz, was assassinated on May 23, 1991. A Revolutionary Left (Dev Sol) member, Adnan Temiz, was jailed for involvement in his death. Temiz was later also mysteriously assassinated. Col. Çillioglu was found dead in his home on Feb. 3, 1994. His death report declared the case a suicide, but there were discrepancies. It was first reported that he was found dead in his office, then at his home. Çillioglu's gun was not missing any bullets. His death was associated with Gen. Bitlis' death in a plane crash after his name appeared on a list of people who died in that crash, because he was originally planning to travel with Bitlis but actually did not. He died a year after the death of Bitlis. The civilian prosecutors have started to re-open at least some of those cases. Özden's family, for example, requested further investigation into his death because they claim that Özden was buried without an autopsy. A civil prosecutor is working on the case. Another case is being handled by prosecutors investigating Ergenekon, an illegal network suspected of having plans to overthrow the government. Retired Gen. Çevik Bir, who played a major role in the Feb. 28, 1997 process, responded to prosecutors' questions about the suspicious death of a colonel in 1997 during an army drill in the KKTC. Col. Berkay was killed by a bullet that barely missed then-Land Forces Commander Gen. Hüseyin Kivrikoglu during the Toros-2 military exercise in the KKTC in 1997. The prosecution was relying on information from an army intelligence officer who claimed that the real target was Gen. Kivrikoglu, whose death would have meant Gen. Bir's promotion to land forces commander or even to chief of general staff, as Bir would have been the most likely candidate for the post under army tradition. Bir denied any truth to the allegations.
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