Questions linger after Lt. Col. Tatar’s alleged suicide

The lieutenant colonel was found dead in his house in İstanbul’s Beykoz district early Sunday. He had been arrested due to suspected links to a plot to assassinate admirals at the Naval Forces Command, but was released last Wednesday upon an appeal by his lawyer. An İstanbul court issued another arrest warrant for Tatar shortly after his release.

According to Turkish dailies, a police officer arrived at Tatar’s house early Sunday to take the lieutenant colonel to the police station. Tatar asked the officer to give him a few minutes to get ready and rushed to the bathroom. There, Tatar shot himself in the head. A public prosecutor investigated the scene of incident and prepared a report stating that the lieutenant colonel had committed suicide. However, no autopsy was performed on Tatar. He was laid to rest at the Karşıyaka Cemetery in Ankara yesterday. Adm. Eşref Uğur Yiğit, one of the two admirals the assassination plot had targeted, attended the funeral ceremony.

Tatar’s wife, Nilüfer, said she would file a criminal complaint against prosecutor Süleyman Pehlivan, who is conducting the probe into the alleged plot.

The lack of an autopsy on the lieutenant colonel has sparked questions over whether he committed suicide or was killed.

Tatar was suspected to have ties to Ergenekon, and according to some commentators, he could have been killed by the shady network to prevent him from giving up the secrets of the organization if he was arrested for a second time.

The lieutenant colonel had been arrested on charges of plotting to assassinate two admirals, Metin Ataç and Eşref Uğur Yiğit. Nine other members of the naval forces have been arrested in connection with the assassination plot thus far. There are claims that those arrested were in close contact with Maj. Levent Bektaş, who was jailed in April for suspected links to a large cache of munitions unearthed on land owned by the İstek Foundation in İstanbul’s Poyrazköy district. That discovery came as part of the Ergenekon investigation.

Tatar’s lawyer told the Star daily that his client had sought psychological help from a professional. “He asked a psychologist for an appointment on Friday. The psychologist said he was too busy and offered him an appointment for Monday. That proposal frustrated Tatar,” the lawyer stated.

A police raid into the office of retired Gen. Veli Küçük, who is currently in jail on charges of Ergenekon membership, revealed a document classifying Tatar on the basis of his religious and ideological background.

The document reads that Tatar is an Alevi and comes from Yuva village in the Gürün district of eastern Sivas province. “Yuva village is known in its region as a hotbed for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK] and anarchists. His mother E., father H. and close relative H.T. were previously convicted of membership in a separatist organization. … He is known to exert his utmost effort to push the Naval Forces Command to employ his relatives during recruitment periods. I am of the opinion that such a dark formation based on denominational cooperation is of high danger for our armed forces,” the document states.

Suspicious suicides raise eyebrows

Tatar’s death is just one in a series of alleged suicides by members of the military that have raised concern in society.

The suspicious suicides of military personnel were brought back to Turkey’s agenda in November after a retired colonel, Belgütay Varımlı, reportedly killed himself by jumping off the balcony of his apartment in İstanbul’s Kadıköy district on Nov. 20. Varımlı’s suicide sparked suspicion because he was known to be a devout Muslim and did not condone the idea of killing oneself since suicide is one of the biggest sins in Islam.

The ambiguity surrounding the suicides of retired naval Col. Tanju Ünal, naval Capt. Olgun Ural and Lt. Col. Nursal Gedik have not been dispelled, either.

Ünal was believed to have had a significant amount of confidential information on the Hizbullah terrorist organization, the Western Study Group and Ergenekon.

Ural was found dead in his house on March 24. The colonel had sent confidential documents about an anti-democratic formation within the Turkish military to Ergenekon prosecutors, according to claims.

Gedik, who was found dead on Nov. 11, 2007, was serving in a biochemistry laboratory at the Kasımpaşa Military Hospital. He reportedly had knowledge of drug smuggling and the trafficking of women in Turkey.

Behçet Oktay, the former head of the National Police Department’s special operations unit, was found critically wounded in his automobile in February with a single gunshot wound to his head and was pronounced dead at a hospital in Ankara. Suicide was listed as the cause of death by officials, but his family remained suspicious about the circumstances. An autopsy showed that Oktay had seven fractured ribs, and cocaine was found in his blood and urine. The autopsy findings resulted in suspicion that he had been assassinated.

Maj. Abdülkerim Kırca, an alleged member of JİTEM -- a clandestine and illegal gendarmerie intelligence unit whose existence has thus far been officially denied -- was found dead in his Ankara home in January.

Some suspected Ergenekon members have also attempted to kill themselves in their prison cells. Among them were Erkut Ersoy, founder of an organization called the Special Bureau Intelligence Group; Maj. Muzaffer Tekin; and retired Gen. Hurşit Tolon.