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Revision as of 16:14, 3 March 2007 by Sc.helm (talk | contribs) (→External links: some addition)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The "deep state" (Turkish derin devlet) is an influential and informal anti-democratic coalition within the Turkish political system, composed of high-level elements within the Turkish military, security and intelligence services, the judicial branch, and key leaders of organized crime movements. This is an attempt of defining a phenomenon observed in Turkey since the early 1970s. At the beginning the discussion on a secret formation within the State focussed on the term Counter-Guerrilla (in Turkish: kontr-gerilla). Parallel to developments in other member States of the NATO the name of Gladio is sometimes used as well.
Many authors believe in an organized and institutionalized form of the deep State and have pointed at the Özel Harp Dairesi (ÖHD - Special Warfare Department). This unit formed in 1952 as Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu (STK - Tactical Mobilisation Group) operates under the authority of the President of General Staff and is also known by other titles such as Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı (Special Forces Command) or Harekat Dairesi (Operations Department) (also see page of Can Dündar |accessdate =2007-03-02). The notion of deep State is similar to that of a "state within the state".
The political agenda of the deep state involves an allegiance to nationalism, corporatism, and state interests. Violence and other means of pressure have historically been employed in a largely covert manner to manipulate political and economic elites and ensure specific interests are met within the seemingly democratic framework of the political landscape.
Incidents
A number of (mostly unclarified) incidents have fueled the discussion on the deep State. Some of them are:
On 30 March 1972 special forces raided Kızıldere village in Niksar district, Tokat province and killed 10 young men. The victims included Mahir Çayan (THKP-C), Hüdai Arıkan (Dev-Genç), Cihan Alptekin (THKO), taxi driver Nihat Yılmaz, teacher Ertan Saruhan, farmer Ahmet Atasoy, Sinan Kazım Özüdoğru (Dev-Genç), student Sabahattin Kurt, Ömer Ayna THKO and lieutenant Saffet Alp. The three hostages (two British and one Canadian citizen) they held in an attempt to prevent the execution of three students' leaders (Deniz Gezmiş, Hüseyin İnan and Yusuf Aslan were also killed. for details see Bianet of 30 March 2006).
- The Ziverbey villa
Ziverbey köşkü (a villa in Erenköy quarters of Istanbul) became the name of torture after the 1971 coup d'état. Intellectuals such as İlhan Selçuk and Uğur Mumcu were tortured here and supported the allegation of ex-General Talat Turhan, who alleged that the interrogators had introduced themselves as a special (counter-guerrilla) unit, entitled to kill him, if they wanted to.
On 1 May 1977 the trade union onfederation DİSK held a rally on Taksim Square, Istanbul with half a million participants. Unidentified people shot at the crowd and killed more than 30 persons. On 28 April 2006 Bianet (the Independent Network of Communication) presented the following names of victims: Bayram Çıtak, Kahraman Alsancak, Hasan Yıldırım, Ziya Baki, Aleksandros Kontuas, Hüseyin Kırgın, Mehmet Ali Genç, Ali Sidal, Ömer Narman, Sibel Açıkalın, Garabet Ayhan, Kadriye Duman, Ercüment Gürkut, Hacer İpek, Hamdi Toka, Nazan Ünaldı, Jale Yeşilnil, Yasin Elmas, Mahmut Atilla Özveren, Leyla Altıparmak, Kenan Çatak, Mustafa Elmas, Hatice Altun, Bayram Eyi, Diran Negis, Ramazan Sarı, Meral Cebren, Ahmet Gözükara, Rasim Elmas, Hikmet Özkürkçü, Nazmi Arı, Kadir Bağcı, Niyazi Darı, Murtezim Örtülü and one unnamed person (35) (see http://www.bianet.org/2006/04/28/78385.htm). The perpetrators were never caught.
- The Susurluk Scandal
The Susurluk scandal developed after a car accident on 3 November 1996 near Susurluk in Balıkesir province. In this accident, former Deputy Chief of İstanbul Police, Hüseyin Kocadağ, the leader of the Grey Wolves (Nationalist Action Party’s violent youth organization), Abdullah Çatlı and a woman named Gonca Us died; DYP Urfa MP Sedat Bucak, who was also the leader of a large group of village guards in Siverek, was injured. This coalition exposed the connections between the security forces, politicians and organized crime.
A Parliamentary Investigation Commission established after the accident published a 350-page Susurluk Report in April 1997. The Commission’s report maintained that the state organs used the Grey Wolves and that some state forces initiated the right-left conflicts in the 1970s.
- The Şemdinli incident
On 9 November 2005 a bookshop was bombed in Şemdinli district, Hakkari province killing one man and injuring others. Passengers managed to apprehend three suspects. Afterwards it was revealed that two men were members of the security services. The alleged bomber was a PKK informant. All three were later charged, tried and convicted. However, prosecutor Ferhat Sarıkaya who tried to find the high-level links between Gendarmerie Sergeants Ali Kaya, Ozcan Ildeniz and Veysel Ates, the PKK-informer was kicked out of his post. He lost his job by almost unanimous decision by the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors in the Ministry of Justice.
- The Hrant Dink assassination
Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian newspaper editor was killed on 19 January 2007 outside the office of his journal Agos. The juvenile killer Ogün Samast was later arrested with the weapon in Samsun. After his arrest, a video clip was released showing him posing with two police officers in front of and holding Turkish flag. Among the suspects believed to have assisted Ogün Samast was Erhan Tuncel. On 7 February 2007 the news agency ANKA reported on the ties of Tuncel to nationalist circles and the fact that he had been working as a police informer and staff member of the Gendarmerie Intelligence Services (JITEM), whose existence is denied by authorities (see the article in Bianet of 12 Februar 2007).
Admissions of its existence
The first to publicly point at the existence of the "deep state," in 1974, was the then Turkish Prime Minister, Bülent Ecevit, who called it "Counter-Guerrilla." General Kemal Yamak, at the time commander of the ÖHP (Department for Special Warfare) asked General Semih Sancar, the then Chief of General Staff to ask the Prime Minister for a secret budget of 1 million dollar that so far had been paid by the USA. In his memoirs former President and strong man General Kenan Evren, who led the 1980 military coup related a meeting with the then Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel on 5 May 1980 stating that Demirel asked him to use the staff of the ÖHD in the fight with the terrorists apparently hinting at the incident in Kizildere village on 30 March 1972. Kenan Evren reportedly refused stating that he would not allow renewed rumours about counter-guerrillas. Kenan Evren made similar remarks in the daily Hürriyet of 16 November 1990.
Former Prime Minister Tansu Çiller was less concerned, stating that the identity and criminal record of persons "who killed for the state" did not matter, and that "those who died for the state, and those who killed for the state" are both heroes of Turkey. Former President Süleyman Demirel described the deep state in 2005 as follows: "The deep state is the state itself. It is the military."
The newest admission comes from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In the television show İskele Sancak on Turkish TV channel Kanal 7 on January 26, 2007, he stated his belief in the existence of the "deep state." "I don't agree with those who say the deep state does not exist, it does exist. It has always been there," he said, "It is not something that started with the period of the Turkish Republic. It even goes back to the Ottoman . But to minimize it, if possible even annihilate it, that is what must be done."
See also
- Abdi İpekçi
- Abdullah Çatlı
- Ahmet Taner Kışlalı
- Alev Alatlı
- Alparslan Arslan
- Alparslan Türkeş
- Bahçelievler massacre
- Bahriye Üçok
- Counter-Guerrilla
- Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele
- Mehmet Ağar
- Mehmet Ali Ağca
- Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu
- Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı
- Muammer Aksoy
- Uğur Mumcu
- Şemdinli
- Susurluk
- Taksim Square massacre
- Türk İntikam Tugayı
References
- Jones, Gareth (2005-11-20). "Bombing throws spotlight on Turkey". Turkish Daily News. Retrieved 2006-12-21.
The "deep state" is made up of elements from the military, security and judicial establishments wedded to a fiercely nationalist, statist ideology who, if need be, are ready to block or even oust a government that does not share their vision.
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(help) - Kemal Yamak: Gölgede Kalan İzler ve Gölgeleşen Bizler (Traces in the Shadow and We becoming Shadows), Dogan Kitap, January 2006, ISBN: 975-293-415-3
- Gorvett, Jon (2006). "Bombing Campaign a Response to Ankara's Kurdish Policies, or "Deep State" Plot?". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. American Educational Trust. pp. 44–45. Retrieved 2006-12-21.
Yet speculation is rife as to who might really be behind the group.
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ignored (help) - http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/news/mediadesk/documents/Terrorism_Western_Europe_001.pdf p. 6 of 28
- Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT): Annual Report 1997, ISBN 975-7217-22-0, in the Turkish version the quote is on p. 7
- Kemal Yamak: Gölgede Kalan İzler ve Gölgeleşen Bizler (Traces in the Shadow and We becoming Shadows), Dogan Kitap, January 2006, ISBN: 975-293-415-3
- Kenan Evren'in Anıları (Memoirs of Kenan Evren). Istanbul 1990, p. 431
- ^ Yusuf Kanlı (2007-01-29). "The Turkish deep state". Turkish Daily News. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
- Mehmet Barlas (2007-01-29). "Osmanlı'da oyun bitmez – Derin Devlet". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 2007-01-29.
- "'State within a state' should be demolished". Sabah. 2007-01-29. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
External links
- Transclusion error: {{En}} is only for use in File namespace. Use {{langx|en}} or {{in lang|en}} instead. How deep is the deep state? from soL the online newspaper.
- Template:Tr 'Derin devlet' nedir? article by Sahin Alpay on the Turkish deep state.
- Template:Tr special dossier of the daily Sabah on the deep State (interviews with Evren and Demirel)
- Template:Tr List of books on the subject and private page of journalist Abdullah Harun
- Template:Tr Page of Can Dündar