>From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: "[Ozgurluk.Org]" Ex-Spy Spins Web of Collusion in Turkey's War >Against Kurds > >Saturday, August 19, 2000 | Print this story > >Ex-Spy Spins Web of Collusion in Turkey's War Against Kurds > >By AMBERIN ZAMAN, Special to The Times > > >ANKARA, Turkey--For years, Turkey's political establishment >faced--and managed to fend off--assertions that it colluded with >drug traffickers, hit men and gunrunners in its 15-year war against >Kurdish separatists. > Since the separatists' defeat last year, however, the allegations >have resurfaced from an unlikely and embarrassing source--a >former chief of counterintelligence for Turkey's spy agency. >Mehmet Eymur, who served in the National Intelligence Agency >for three decades, is creating an uproar here with his popular >5-month-old Web site, whose reports tarring dozens of officials >are picked up daily by Turkey's newspapers and hastily denied by >the accused. > From self-imposed exile in Washington, the former spy faces >criminal charges at home for divulging state secrets. > But there is little doubt that his painstakingly documented >disclosures are bringing new pressure on the government to >prosecute officials accused of collaborating with mobsters who >trained Kurdish mercenaries to fight Kurdish rebels. >Western governments have faulted successive Turkish >administrations for laxity in fighting this country's flourishing drug >trade. The State Department has reported that as much as 75% of >the heroin seized in Europe last year "transited Turkey, was >processed there or was seized in connection with Turkish criminal >syndicates." > Turkey's prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, is credited with cracking >down on drug lords. An alleged Kurdish heroin kingpin, Urfi >Cetinkaya, was arrested in Istanbul this week. >Yet politicians and security officials implicated in drug-related >corruption scandals remain untouched. Several, including a man >privately described by U.S. drug enforcement officials as a >"well-known heroin chemist," were reelected to parliament last >year. >Eymur's decision to remove himself to Washington has invited >speculation that he is being encouraged by the U.S. government. >Some critics say he is trying to discredit Senkal Atasagun, the >national intelligence chief who forced him into retirement two years >ago. > "He is waging psychological war under the American flag >against the Turkish army, in line with the CIA's directives," said >Dogu Perincek, the leader of a small leftist party who is on the >former spy's list of accused. >In a telephone interview, Eymur vigorously denied the charges, >saying he's seeking only "to help Turkish justice" while remaining >outside the country and "waiting for Turkey to become a >full-fledged democracy." > "If there was even one Turkish official [whom I could rely on], if >he could send me his phone number, I would gladly shut down my >Web site and call him," Eymur stated recently on the site, >http://www.atin.org, which has had nearly 1 million visitors since its >March 8 launch. > Among other incriminating evidence, the site carries transcripts >of the alleged confessions of a Kurdish rebel-turned-informer >named Mahmut Yildrim, who has been linked to the slayings of >several prominent Kurdish intellectuals and drug dealers. Yildrim, >whose intelligence agency code name was "Green," was promptly >freed after telling police interrogators of his connections with top >Turkish officials, the site alleges. >In its battle against the separatists, the Turkish state is widely >accused of having enlisted many such characters, who, under >state protection, killed Kurdish drug dealers and muscled in on >their trade. Eymur has claimed that "Green," whose whereabouts >remain a mystery, shared drug profits with "various police chiefs >and [members of] the gendarmerie. This is not a secret." > Turkish officials have consistently blamed the drug trade on >rebels of the outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, whose >leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured, tried for treason and >sentenced to death last year as the insurgency collapsed. >But intriguing evidence of ties between government officials and >Turkish criminals, including drug dealers, emerged in November >1996 after a car crash in the small town of Susurluk. A police chief >and a convicted heroin smuggler were among the dead. Sedat >Bucak, a Kurdish lawmaker, survived the crash and claimed to >have lost his memory. >A parliamentary investigation into why this unlikely trio was >traveling in the same car came to nothing, and critics of the >government suspect a cover-up. Bucak has been reelected to >parliament. > "Unfortunately," Eymur said, "in Turkey, one scandal ends only >to be followed by another." > >-- >Press Agency Ozgurluk >In Support of the Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey and Kurdistan >http://www.ozgurluk.org > > _______________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________
