Maj. Abdülkerim Kırca, believed to be a higher up in JİTEM, had replaced Maj. Cem Ersever, a former major who left the army after Gendarmerie Commander Gen. Eşref Bitlis was killed in a suspicious plane crash. Ersever, in a confession made to the press after he left the army in 1993, provided accounts of JİTEM activities. Ersever's confessions were later compiled in a number of books by author Soner Yalçın. Before his assassination, the major also said he was in charge of JİTEM's operations in the Southeast.
Ersever's body was found in Ankara on Nov. 4, 1993. His girlfriend and right-hand man were also killed, and his archive disappeared.
Numerous allegations from families of the victims of hundreds of unresolved murders accused Kırca of being behind most of the murders committed in Turkey's East and Southeast in the '90s. An upsurge in the number of unresolved deaths in the region does coincide with the term he served in the region.
Abdülkadir Aygan, a former member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), had claimed that he had witnessed Kırca, who received the State Merit of Honor from former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, kill three men with a gun in the southeastern city of Silopi.
In a report prepared by the Prime Ministry on the 1996 Susurluk affair, Kutlu Savaş, the author of the report, had referred to Kırca as the "planner and executor" of most of the incidents.
The Susurluk affair is the first of many incidents in Turkey that confirmed the Turkish public's long-held suspicions of a "deep state." A police chief, an internationally sought criminal and a deputy who led a southeastern Kurdish clan armed by the state to fight against the PKK were found in the same car following an accident that occurred near the town of Susurluk in 1996. The police chief and criminal died from injuries sustained in the crash.
PKK member-turned informant Aygan claimed Kırca had personally killed Necati Aydın, Mehmet Aydın and Ramazan Keskin -- members of the Diyarbakır branch of a health union -- on the Silvan-Diyarbakır highway.
Murat Aslan, who was detained near the Diyarbakır Municipality building during Kırca's assignment to the region, was questioned under torture. He was subsequently killed near the Dicle River and his body burned.
Mehmet Salim Dönen of Silvan and his uncle were killed at this time in a similar fashion. Abdülkerim and Zana Zoğurlu were taken from their homes and killed in an open field.
Kırca had in the past faced a criminal trial over "establishing an armed gang," "torture" and "three counts of homicide."
Benzer Haberler 
National
