Past testimony of colonel sheds light on JİTEM atrocities

Oğuz's testimony, made to a parliamentary commission investigating a car crash in Susurluk in 1996 which had revealed ties between a police chief, an internationally sought crime boss and a deputy, came to light once again as part of an ongoing trial in Diyarbakır of 11 people accused of being members of JİTEM. This secret and illegal unit, formed under the gendarmerie force, was possibly created to assist in the military's fight against ethnic terrorism in the Southeast.

However, JİTEM later became an instrument for terrorizing locals and a major player in the region's illegal commercial activities, such as the drug and arms trades.

In his testimony delivered on Feb. 18, 1997 to the commission investigating the Susurluk affair, Oğuz recounted in stark detail the murders and atrocities committed by JİTEM members. He said: “The system in Diyarbakır, to which you always refer to as a ‘gang,' is different. I would like to refer to it as a combination of hit men and those who are involved for personal gain. The people involved for personal gain order the hit men. They tell them who to kill after establishing their target. How do the hit men do it? They wear Special Operations' uniforms in order to deceive the target. They knock on the door pretending to be police officers, take him away and then kill him and throw the body into the gendarmerie area. The commanders of the military outposts know about it.”  In his testimony, Oğuz also revealed how those who were chosen to be executed were targeted.

“They do not necessarily take a person's support for terrorism as a criterion to kill him. They do look at that, but even if the person does not aid and abet the terrorist group, he is a target as long as he is a Kurd. He will be killed even if that Kurdish person loves this country more than us, if members name him as the target.”

He also said that JİTEM teams acted on hearsay and executed everyone who was rumored to support the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). “They will somehow manage to make it look as though he is related to the PKK.” He also said he did not believe the unsolved murders of the '90s in the East and Southeast would ever be solved, stating, “I do not think that is ever going to happen … because those who pull the trigger are also usually executed sooner or later.”

JİTEM is also closely connected with the ongoing Ergenekon case, where suspected members of a clandestine criminal gang allegedly seeking to overthrow the government are standing trial. Allegedly one of the tools of the Ergenekon gang is JİTEM, whose founders, retired Gen. Veli Küçük and retired Col. Arif Doğan, were Ergenekon suspects. However, the military judiciary refused to confirm the existence of such an organization for a while.

“It would be impossible to commit certain crimes like kidnapping, extra-judicial killing -- in the name of JİTEM -- without the knowledge and the protection of the commanders of the perpetrators,” Eskşehir Chief of Police Hanefi Avcı -- formerly the chief of police in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır between 1984 to 1992 -- indicated in testimony. He added that there were many placards at the Diyarbakır military bases for JİTEM and that the members were openly participating in meetings. Avcı also gave detailed information about other crimes. According to Avcı, the car bombing of Diyarbakır Bar Association Chairman Mustafa Özer and the arson at the Yeni Ülke newspaper were most probably committed by JİTEM.

Avcı also detailed the murder of Vedat Aydın, the chairman of the Diyarbakır branch of the pro-Kurdish People's Labor Party (HEP). Aydın, a lawyer, was kidnapped in 1991 by people who identified themselves as policemen and later found dead. Tens of thousands of people attended his funeral. Security forces opened fire on the crowd, and three were killed during the funeral.

According to Avcı the kidnappers of Aydın were strong enough to remove the roadblocks between Aydın's house and the place where he was executed. He added that once a JİTEM commander, Cem Ersever, came to him and asked him to withdraw the police who were guarding the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP). “He told me that they were planning to do something to the HADEP building where there was a hunger strike going on. I told him that to do such a thing would be wrong,” Avcı said in his testimony.

 Ersever, who was allegedly planning to attack the party building, was killed by an unidentified assailant in 1993 after making confessions about JİTEM's existence.