‘Captured terrorist leaders let go under military’s orders’

Yıldırım Beğler, a long-time translator for the military, claims that some of the top commanders in the PKK were captured in northern Iraq by a squad of the Special Forces Command. Beğler, a Kirkuk Turkmen who came to Turkey in 1995, recounted the details of the events of that period to Today's Zaman. Beğler, who worked as a General Staff translator for 14 years, now lives in Norway, near Oslo, where he has political refugee status.

Beğler’s allegations provide important clues to the PKK’s links to other illegal groups inside the military. Saying that a Special Forces squad captured Murat Karayılan and Cemil Bayık, the two highest-ranking commanders in the terrorist group after its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan, Beğler says they were told to let the terrorists go by an order from above. Stating that he often witnessed the PKK being assisted by illegal formations inside the gendarmerie, the former translator reported: “If we wanted to, we could have finished off the PKK. We didn’t, because it worked for us – ‘us’ being the Special Forces. We gave supplies and medicine to the PKK as well as arms.”

He said Karayılan and Bayık, as well as other high commanders of the PKK, were captured in 1992 in northern Iraq, where Beğler worked at the time as an agent for the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). “We worked under Major M. in northern Iraq, who was assigned to the Şırnak Brigade Command. We captured all of them except Apo [Öcalan]; they said we should wait and not take them to Turkey. I saw this with my very own eyes. I was one of the people who kept watch at the side of the prisoners. We brought the PKK commanders to a place called “the committee” in Zaho, which was a command center for [Jalal] Talabani’s group. We were told that they would spend the night there, and we would take them back in the morning. Later, another order came, saying, ‘You people withdraw and the peshmerga will wait, and then we’ll take them early in the morning’.”

Yıldırım Beğler

Beğler says they left the PKK terrorists as commanded with the peshmerga and returned in the morning to find that they were gone. The peshmerga soldiers said they had escaped. “We found out that they were taken to the Zala camp in Sulaimaniya. Talabani took them there.” He said that practically, the release of the PKK chiefs gave the terrorist group a great opportunity, adding that an officer who is currently facing charges in the trial of Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government, was responsible for the treason.

More disturbing disclosures came from Beğler: He said 4,000 Kalashnikov rifles from Hungary were sent to the PKK under the guise of Red Crescent assistance to northern Iraq. “These guns had been at a port for two or even three years, and were brought to us. 4,000 Kalashnikovs. Now go to any PKK militant and look at their Kalashnikov. You’ll see that the handle is brown and the serial number has been filed off, since we erased all of them. The butt end is turned inward, and they all have brown handles.”

He remembers the day well: “We loaded them in trucks and covered them with blankets. We put Red Crescent flags on the trucks. In Zaho, we transferred these rifles to the PKK via [Massoud] Barzani, Talabani and village guard A.U.”

Beğler also insisted that these operations were carried under the orders of the General Staff. “Who were we there? We were completely under the orders of Mete [the code name of today’s jailed Ergenekon defendant L.G.] who in turn took orders from a general. And that one was taking direct orders from the General Staff.”

Beğler said currently there were still generals in the military who are part of Ergenekon. “However, I can’t name their names.” When asked why, he said: “Because most of them are still on active duty, and they are very powerful. Frankly, I am afraid. Not for myself, but for my family. I have children, I have relatives, my nephews and nieces in Turkey, I am afraid for them. I can say this much, there are two generals, a lieutenant colonel and a colonel. They are 100 percent committed to Ergenekon, and they are still active. What’s more, there are dozens of sergeants.”

“There is only one reason I am talking now. I am only talking for democracy, so that we can become a democratic country, like Europe. For so many years, we have been so cruel to these people. Kurdish, Arab or Turkish, what’s the difference? Look, here [in Norway] everybody has equal opportunities. Everybody goes to school, everybody earns their money, nobody does anything to another.”