A prosecutor on Friday requested the acquittal of 19 suspects during a high-profile trial in Ankara related to extrajudicial killings committed allegedly by Turkey’s Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism (JITEM) during early 1990s.
Mehmet Ağar, a former police chief and interior minister, Korkut Eken, a former Turkish military officer and a National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) agent, İbrahim Şahin, the former head of the police’s special forces unit and several other former members the special forces are among the suspects of the trial.
Mahmut Yıldırım, known to many by his code name “Yeşil” [Green] who was a contract killer used by the JİTEM in various operations, before he disappeared in 1998, is also among the suspects.
The trial involves the unsolved murders of 19 Kurdish businessmen between 1993 and 1996, at the height of armed clashes between Turkey’s security forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Savaş Buldan, the husband of Pervin Buldan, the co-chair of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), who was abducted and later killed in 2014, is on the list of those killed in the JİTEM operations.
Kurdish liberal Yusuf Ziya Ekinci, who was found dead in Ankara in 1994, is also among the victims claimed to have been killed by Turkey’s security forces. Ekinci was the lawyer for Behçet Cantürk, who, according to the Turkish state, financed the PKK through illegal drug trade. Cantürk was himself found dead in Turkey’s northwestern district of Sapanca the same year.
The extrajudicial assassination spree started in 1993 straight after the then prime minister Tansu Çiller announced the existence of a list of Kurdish businessmen whom she accused of raising funds for the PKK’s operations.
Most of the evidence related to the killings became apparent after a car crash in the Susurluk district of Turkey’s northwestern province of Balıkesir in 1996.
Abdullah Çatlı, a former ultra-rightist militant wanted by police for multiple murders and drug trafficking, his girlfriend, and senior police official Hüseyin Kocadağ were all killed in the car crash, while Sedat Bucak, a Kurdish MP from the Çiller’s centre-right True Path Party (DYP) was seriously injured.
The accident revealed a complicated web between Turkish politicians, members of the security apparatus and ultranationalists known as Grey Wolves, which is generally defined as “the deep state”. The murders of Kurdish businessman were among cases of extrajudicial abductions and killings that came to light as a result of the car crash.
The trial in Ankara is therefore critical for throwing light on crimes committed during Turkey’s recent dark history. However, a criminal court in Ankara decided to acquit all the suspects in 2019. The court’s verdict was later overturned by a higher court, which demanded a retrial.
According to Sertaç Ekinci, a lawyer representing victims at the retrial, the court will possibly acquit all the suspects for a second time. Ekinci noted that the court also wants to use the fact that case has become time-barred, adding however that there are other court decisions indicating that crimes committed by public servants do not fall under the statute of limitations set by Turkish law.
Ekinci also said that the lawyers involved had requested that the suspects be tried for crimes against humanity, but that the court had denied this request.
“What we observe is that there is an intention to hold a show trial and close the case in a hurry,” the lawyer told ArtıGerçek.
