According to the testimony of a witness whose identity is being withheld for security reasons, an armed attack on Jan. 24, 2001 on Diyarbakır Police Chief Gaffar Okkan was organized by Ergenekon leaders. In addition to Okkan, Atilla Durmuş -- nephew of then-Health Minister Osman Durmuş -- and police officers Mehmet Sepetçi, Mehmet Kamalı, Sabri Kün and Selahattin Baysoy were also killed.
After the assassination, it was claimed that the attack was staged by the Turkish Hizbullah. Some of the suspects were captured. A leader of the group, Mehmet Beşri Varol, was sentenced to 18 years, nine months in jail. Mehmet Çiçek, the militant responsible for Hizbullah's Diyarbakır activities, was sentenced to life in prison.
According to the witness whose testimony is included in the evidence files, Okkan was killed upon the orders of Levent Ersöz, who was the regional gendarmerie commander at the time. Ersöz, now a retired general, is currently one of the prime suspects in the Ergenekon case. The witness testified: “In 2001, I was in Diyarbakır when Levent Ersöz was the commander of the regional gendarmerie. He called some special sergeants and noncommissioned officers to his room, telling us we would be assigned to a ‘very important task in Diyarbakır.' … I was the driver of one of the four vehicles used in that operation. When we got to the city, seven people -- three of them soldiers -- left the cars with rifles and LAWs [light anti-tank weapons]. About 20 minutes after that, I heard rifle shots. I found out later that it was Police Chief Gaffar Okkan that they had killed on that day. I was too scared to speak. Levent Ersöz was a very powerful man at the time.”
The new evidence included in the third indictment in the Ergenekon case also indicates that an armed attack in 2006 on State Minister Faruk Çelik might have been carried out upon the orders of Ersöz. The Ergenekon evidence files include information showing that Çelik applied to the İstanbul Public Prosecutor's Office on Oct. 22, 2008, pressing charges against Levent Ersöz for the 2006 attack, carried out by a man named İrfan Subaşı. Çelik told prosecutors that he didn't think there was enough reason for “İrfan Subaşı, whom I do not know at all by any means,” to shoot and injure him. He also said he had reason to suspect that Ersöz -- with whom he was at odds during the time Ersöz served at the Gendarmerie Regional Command in Bursa -- might have sent Subaşı, a former police officer. In his testimony, Subaşı had said that he was angry at Çelik for blocking action in Parliament to help victims defrauded by the now-defunct İmar Bank.
