Weapons found in Gölbaşı different from Susurluk rifles

Salih Şarman, the former governor of southeastern Batman province, said: ‘The fact that the weapons were buried underground brings to mind the question of whether they were unregistered. If they are unregistered, they were most likely used in some incidents’.

Şahin was detained on Wednesday in the investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine network of groups and individuals accused of trying to overthrow the government. Police intelligence indicated that Şahin was detained on suspicion of planning sensational assassinations.

Some analysts said on Friday that the buried weapons in Gölbaşı might shed light on a number of murders committed in the Gölbaşı area prior to the Susurluk investigation of 1996, which started when a former police chief, a southeastern tribal leader whose men were armed by the state to fight separatist violence, and an internationally wanted mafia boss were involved in an accident near the small township of Susurluk while riding in the same car. The police chief and the mafia boss, as well as his girlfriend, a former model, were killed in the accident. No serious arrests followed in the ensuing investigation, which exposed, for the first time in modern Turkish history, a gang with links to the state.

The Susurluk investigation report had pointed to Uzi rifles, which were used in some of the assassinations suspected to be the work of the Susurluk gang but had not been located. Although some have asserted that the Gölbaşı weapons might be related to these rifles, initial police findings in Gölbaşı did not support this theory. 

In the meantime, Salih Şarman, the former governor of southeastern Batman province, has claimed the weapons found in Gölbaşı could have been used in "some incidents."

"There is a training center of the Special Operations Unit in Gölbaşı," Şarman said. "The fact that the weapons were buried underground brings to mind the question of whether they were unregistered. If they are unregistered, they were most probably used in some incidents."

Şarman also said Şahin would give the best explanation for the weapons discovered in Gölbaşı. Şahin was detained on Wednesday in the investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine network of groups and individuals accused of trying to overthrow the government.

The excavation of the site started on Thursday and continued until mid-day. The teams resumed excavation on Friday and located the munitions.

Şarman said he established a special unit made up of village guards, soldiers and special teams in Batman when he was the governor in 1993. "We imported weapons worth $3 million from China and Bulgaria," he said. "We submitted all weapons imported to the gendarmerie and had them registered. Some circles, however, slandered me years later, and I was jailed." Şarman was the first Turkish governor imprisoned for accepting a bribe.

The Susurluk missing weapons case

In the early '90s, 10 9mm Micro Uzi, 10 9mm Micro Uzi SMG and 10 22-caliber Beretta revolvers went missing from the National Police Department inventory, where they had been donated by the Hospro Co. Three of the Berettas were found in a Mercedes that crashed near the township of Susurluk in 1996. A police chief, a criminal who also was hired by state intelligence units to fight in counterterrorism efforts and a deputy were found in the same car. The police chief and the criminal died, and the deputy claimed to have lost his memory after the accident. A criminal case was launched against former Special Operations Unit Deputy Chairman İbrahim Şahin and nine other police officers on charges of being responsible for how the weapons went missing after the accident. The investigation found that the weapons were not donated but sold to the police department by the Hospro Co.; however, false documents made the transaction look like a donation. The court banned Şahin from public service for a year on charges of "neglect of duty." The other nine were acquitted.