Witness points to burial places of missing businessmen

For the past few days, Yıldırım Beğler, a long-time translator for the military, has shared spine-chilling claims about illegal groups in the military and their activities in the '90s, including an allegation that some of the top commanders in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were captured in northern Iraq by a Special Forces Command squad in 1996 but released under orders from generals. Beğler, a Kirkuk Turkmen who came to Turkey in 1995, worked as a General Staff translator for 14 years. He now lives in Norway, near Oslo, where he has political refugee status. In his latest revelations, Beğler called on prosecutors conducting the investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government, to act, describing the precise location of some of the bodies disposed of in illegal operations by the Special Forces Command.

Beğler said there were “fields of death” near the Habur border gate along the border with Iraq, explaining that he had seen many people burned to death in central heating boilers. Beğler gave the location of hundreds of bodies of people executed by special forces officers in the interview. He also said that at least 200 other bodies were buried alongside those of Halil Birlik and Mehmet Bilgiç, two businessmen who disappeared in late ‘90s, describing their locations.

According to Beğler, squads from the Special Forces Command that had taken the law into their own hands in years of OHAL, or martial law, in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast and some cities in eastern Turkey, burned many people alive. “Aside from this, there were those who were thrown into water to drown after being weighted down with heavy rocks. I can think of at least 100 deaths. There is the Hezil Stream near the Habur checkpoint. You have Bridges 47 and 48 over the stream. Bridge 47 is for entrances from Iraq while Bridge 48 is for exits into Iraq. Hundreds have been thrown into the midpoint in between the two bridges with heavy things or stones tied to their feet. Usually NCOs A. and Ş. handled this task.” Beğler says a large number of human remains could be found in the area as most of the bodies were tied to weights.

Not a minefield, a corpse field

According to allegations put forward by Beğler, an area called the “Fire Zone” about 500 to 1,000 meters behind Bridge 48, believed by the locals to be a minefield is actually “clean.” It is between the Hezil Stream and the Aktepe military zone, according to Beğler. “Everyone thinks this area is a minefield, but normally there are no mines there. We cleaned this part up but created that image. There is a brook here, a continuation or perhaps branch of the Hezil Stream. I’d guess 80 to 90 people are buried there, about 20 to 30 meters above the brook. NCO A. from Adana buried many people there at night.”

Beğler also provided some photographs of the area and drew a general map. In addition, he claims that a large number of corpses are buried underground near the “Kapılı” military zone next to the 2nd Infantry base. He said two military zones located near the 2nd Infantry base called the Aktepe Zone and the Kapılı Zone were used by the Wartime Search and Rescue Unit of the Special Forces Command (MAK). “This area was MAK’s special zone.” He also said he had seen bodies thrown into tanks filled with tar in Silopi.

Bodies of Birlik and Bilgiç

Beğler said orders for some executions were given by generals from above while some others were given by E.A. and L.G. -- who is currently in jail as an Ergenekon suspect. He says that two businessmen from Silopi, Halil Birlik and Mehmet Bilgiç, were killed by L.G. himself, who at the time went by the code name Mete. “There were two Silopi businessmen called Halil Birlik and Mehmet Bilgiç. These were killed by Mete himself. He added them to the list on the computer. Their execution was for aiding and abetting the PKK. I took them in at the 48th gate. They were in a taxi. Normally, we would have taken in the taxi driver, too, and done him so as to not leave any traces behind, but I didn’t take him in. His nephew was my friend, a source of mine. I did him a favor and didn’t take the driver in.”

He said after this Birlik and Bilgiç were questioned by L.G. “After that NCO A. and Sgt. Ş buried the two men on an unpaved path leading to Ateşalan through the infantry base. I am telling you this for the first time. Halil Birlik and Mehmet Bilgiç were buried by NCO A. from Adana and Sgt. Ş. in Ateşalan. If they excavate that area, they’ll find it easily because it is a narrow zone.”

He recalled that in addition to the Special Force Command’s MAK unit, he worked with JİTEM, an illegal gendarmerie unit also behind countless atrocities against locals. He said between 1992 and 1995, most of these executions were carried out by NCO K., Sgt. C. , Sgt. Y., and village guards İ.T., S.T. , S.D. and K.S.

Beğler said he had to flee to Norway fearing for his life after a major in the military informed him that he had been added to the Ergenekon hit list. He said his wife also worked at the Special Forces Command, and the couple had to flee.

Beğler said he was ready to talk to the prosecutors conducting the Ergenekon trial. He earlier told a prosecutor in Şırnak, who silenced him saying if he wasn’t quiet about this, all hell would break loose. “I am ready to testify to the Ergenekon prosecutors, but I can’t go to Turkey to testify. Turkey cannot protect me right now.”