Police Chief Okkan was killed by a state team, says witness

Diyarbakır Police Chief Gaffar Okkan was killed along with five police officers who were guarding him on Jan. 24, 2001. The assassination was attributed to Turkish Hizbullah, a religious extremist group. However, Yıldırım Beğler, a long-time translator for the military, claims that Okkan was killed by Team C, a squad under the Special Forces Command. He also stated that he was part of Team C for a short time. Beğler, a Kirkuk Turkmen who came to Turkey in 1995, shared his memories of the day of Okkan's killing with Today's Zaman. Beğler, who worked as a General Staff translator for 14 years, now lives in Norway, near the capital, Oslo, where he has political refugee status.

Beğler recalled that shortly before the assassination, there were rumors accusing Okkan of having links to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and declaring him a traitor who should be killed. He said that following these rumors, Team C was given the task of killing him. “At the time, Team C was stationed in Diyarbakır. One day, they arrived at the Habur checkpoint [at the border with Iraq]. Their clothes were dirty and muddy. They obviously had executed some orders. Normally, we carry two kinds of arms. In daytime, we have normal M-16s, and at night, we carry a Kalashnikov and a handgun. We always have a military uniform and a PKK uniform. When I saw Team C members that day, they were in PKK uniforms,” Beğler said.

He also recalled that on the night of the assassination, members of Team C had a meeting with a military officer code-named Mete (retired Col. L.G., currently jailed as a suspected member of Ergenekon, a clandestine network charged with plotting to overthrow the government). Beğler recounted that the colonel ordered them to go to northern Iraq and to avoid being seen. According to him, members of Team C went to the town of Sulaymaniyah, where they stayed for three or fourth months.

Yıldırım Beğler

“After three or four months, things had settled down. During this time, Hizbullah claimed responsibility for Okkan’s assassination,” Beğler said.

We tortured, Okkan defended democracy

Beğler emphasized that Okkan was an intelligent man and a visionary. “Okkan was trying in those times to do what the Justice and Development Party [AK Party] is doing now with its democratic initiative. He didn’t think like us. When we captured PKK militants, we tortured them. He knew that this was the wrong method. He thought that you couldn’t get anywhere with torture and believed that everything should be based on mutual tolerance and understanding, whereas we would turn life into a hell for a person just because we would find a tape of [Kurdish folk singer] Shivan Perwer.”

Beğler also said Team C was very active and was behind major atrocities between 1990 and 2001 that make the Okkan assassination seem insignificant. “The soldiers working for this team believed they did what they did for the motherland and the nation,” he noted.

According to Beğler’s account, this squad was destroyed in a May 16, 2001 plane crash in Malatya. He said after Team C returned to Diyarbakır, they were ordered by L.G. to fly to Antep. “This was the military type CASA plane that crashed in Malatya on May 16, 2001. All 34 onboard died. All the perpetrators of the Gaffar Okkan murder, the entire Team C of 20 people, were on that plane.”

Yıldırım Beğler, a longtime translator for the military, claims that Gaffar Okkan was killed by Team C, a squad of the Special Forces Command.

Beğler also believes that Team C was destroyed because they were partially exposed. “Their cover must have been blown at some point; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been killed. This is how things work at MAK [the Wartime Search and Rescue Unit]: If you are not exposed by the enemy, you’ll live a hundred years. In any other case, you are instantly executed,” he said.

He said he was on Team C for a short time. “Capt. H.B., who used the code name Rıza at the time, was in charge. He also died on that plane that crashed in Malatya.”

Not JİTEM but MAK

Beğler also provided information on MAK, under which Team C operated. Beğler said the “real jobs” inside the special forces were taken care of by the MAK group, which had about 30 squads functioning under a captain, a lieutenant and 12 staff sergeants in each team. Beğler said Team C, which carried out the Okkan murder, was one of the most active squads.

Beğler also said it was not the dreaded JİTEM -- an illegal and shady intelligence unit inside the military believed to be responsible for many crimes committed against residents of the Southeast in the 1990s -- but MAK that is, currently, the most dangerous unit among the illegal structures known to exist in the military.

He said although members of most of the lower and intermediate ranks of these groups have been captured as part of the Ergenekon investigation, the higher ranks still remain untouched. “These people have also taken control of private security companies. Actually, there is this: MAK once had a scheme in which one non-commissioned officer from the special forces was an orderly to every general. Now, you have an ex-MAK man as an orderly with every brigade commander. Why do they choose ex-MAK people? This way, they can keep all generals under control. An orderly knows everything about a general. He can render a general ineffective, even kill him, when he wants to. Go ask any brigade commander in which branch of the military his orderly began to serve. They will all say the special forces. This was L.G.’s plan,” he said.

Beğler also said that since the AK Party came to power, MAK has slowly been eliminated. “Actually, when the AK Party won, that marked our end. They gave orders to reduce our numbers. We were very comfortable under coalition governments. Nobody ever touched us. They even encouraged us.”

Beğler remembers yet another detail about the CASA plane that crashed in Malatya. He says Ergenekon defendant L.G. tried to stop Sgt. Ümit Başaran, who wanted to see his fiancée, from boarding but had to give him permission when the sergeant insisted.

In the CASA crash of May 16, 2001, 34 soldiers died including Sgt. Başaran. Officials announced that the majority aboard were from the special forces. Şemdin Sakık, a PKK commander, had claimed that Mahmut Yıldırım [also known as Yeşil] was also on the plane. Yeşil is one of the most notorious figures in Turkey, a hit man suspected of some of Turkey’s most mysterious political killings. He disappeared 13 years ago, but some have claimed that he is still alive.