EXTREME RIGHT-WING GROUPS

Over the past several years, serious allegations and credible evidence have been presented concerning improper links between security forces, especially those involved in actions against the PKK or armed radical leftist groups, and ultra-nationalist right wing groups, so-called "álkácá," or idealists, that were active in the 1970s in both legal and illegal activities.92 It appears that some security force members in Turkey who are sympathetic to or linkedto right-wing nationalist groups do not pursue their duties dispassionately in a non-partisan manner, but are seemingly locked in struggle against a perceived mortal enemy, i.e. left-wing or Kurdish groups. This has led in many cases to a double standard, where harsher, often illegal methods are applied to Kurdish or left-wing detainees or groups.

Kemal, a former policeman who suffered torture and was expelled from the force for contact with an outlawed left-wing group, complained that,

What they tell you at the police school and what you do on the job are two different things. At the school they taught us about human rights, but at demonstrations-I was a riot policeman for three years with "Çevik Kuvvetleri"-they would tell us to beat the people if it was a leftist protest but to show restraint if they were rightists or Islamists. There were two standards: if you capture a religious person, one standard, but if you capture a leftist, you beat him. About eighty or ninety percent of the police in my unit were MHP or fundamentalist.93

He also reported that the provincial security director, Orhan TaÕanlar, cursed at him after his arrest: "You have no honor. We have a blood feud with your organization. They kill police."Another torture victim who was detained in Erzincan told us that, "The policeman said, `We are an organization, too. If you are a revolutionary, we are álkácá."94 Recep Ordulu, who served as the assistant security director in Istanbul before the 1980 coup, concurred with his opinion:

A person falls to the ground, but they keep beating. The police have the authority to use force, but they shouldn't exceed this....Actions by certain groups are seen as guilty, while others are met with tolerance. You know the police have one attitude for those who protest outside the Israeli Embassy and another one for left-wing groups.95

In July 1996, the liberal Istanbul daily Cumhuriyet compared the police reaction to demonstrations by the leftist civil servant union KESK, which was met with night sticks and attacked, and one by the right-wing union KAMU-SEN, which received a friendly greeting from police.96

A 1995 report mentioned earlier and prepared by the then junior coalition partner CHP criticized the increasing influence of extreme right-wing and fundamentalist groups-ideologically hostile to Kurdish and left-wing organizations-among the security forces. The report presented the following conclusions: of the seventy-seven provincial security directors, forty-eight percent were either radical fundamentalists (köktendinci) or extremenationalists (álkácá); police academies and "special team" training centers only accept those with a "nationalist" reference because only "nationalists fight against terror;" only 18 percent of the directors could be considered "democrats;" the police have a mentality to consider all those not from their ranks as the enemy.97 One scholar commented that, "Young right-wing hoodlums, who once carried out raids against "leftist" tea houses, now became policemen and schoolteachers or were recruited into the special forces fighting the Kurdish guerrillas."98

Other sources make the same charges. In August 1994, Ôevket Kazan, the present Justice Minister from the Islamist Welfare (Refah) Party, charged that most members of the "special teams," noted for their abusive behavior in southeastern Turkey, were members of MHP.99 In the fall of 1996, it was reported that the General Staff Headquarters prepared a brochure for internal distribution to security forces in the southeast titled, "Public Relations and Winning the People in Internal Security".100 In a warning directed at "special team members," the brochure called on security force members not to wear or make symbols of a "definite political nature that incites the populace;" implied was the "grey wolf" and three crescent symbol associated with MHP and álkácá groups.101 During an investigation of the Sivas massacre of 1993, when fundamentalists burned down a hotel killing thirty-seven Alevi intellectuals, a Turkish parliamentary investigation committee discovered that Islamist bulletins faxed to local newspapers and believed to have provoked the public to violence were sent from the Sivas Security Directorate.102

On November 3, 1996, a motor vehicle accident near the town of Susurluk in western Turkey, which then Interior Minister Mehmet ATMar initially dismissed as "nothing special," unleashed a scandal that shook the country to its foundation and further revealed the extent of the link between security forces and ultra nationalist right-wing groups. A truck collided with a car carrying Háseyin KocadaTM, the director of the Istanbul Police Academy; Abdullah Çatl2, an extreme nationalist [álkácá] militant wanted in at least seven politically-motivated murders in 1978 and on the Interpol red bulletin; Sedat Bucak, a Kurdish tribal leader, parliamentarian, and commander of a pro-state village guard force in southeastern Turkey; and a woman believed to have links with organized crime.103 In the trunk of the car were pistols, sub-machine guns, silencers, and a number of identity cards, including an official "green passport" normally given to high officials and police identity cards.104 At the beginning of December, the mainstreamSabah newspaper reported that inspectors from the Interior Ministry had confirmed that Çatl2, using an alias, had a permit to carry a weapon and had received a passport four times, including the official "green" passport.105 The accident loosened a flood of claims-including a leaked report allegedly from the security service MIT-of links among security forces, extremist right-wing groups, and the mafia. This odd alliance was supposedly involved in actions against the PKK and the armed Armenian extremist group ASALA and in drug and arms smuggling.106 The parliament organized an investigation committee, and in an interview with Turkish columnists on December 3, Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan stated that, "You cannot have a gang within the state...Nobody can be allowed to do anything illegal, with no exceptions...Nothing, including fighting the PKK, can be an excuse for a crime. If such things happen, those gangs, whatever their make-up, will be disbanded."107 A week later, in a December 11 television interview, President of Turkey Suleyman Demirel stated that, "This is an important matter. It has to be brought to light. It has to go as far as it goes."108

A January 10, 1997, report prepared by the Prime Minister's Inspection Committee did call for opening a legal investigation into 35 individuals, including A-ar, Bucak, and a number security officials, but Justice Minister Ôevket Kazan (Refah) rejected any link to higher-ranking government officials. There are reported plans to lift the parliamentary immunity of Bucak and A-ar.

From 1975-1977, the predecessor to MHP, also headed by TárkeÕ, was a junior partner in Suleyman Demirel's coalition National Front Government where he served as Deputy Prime Minister. At the time there were numerous allegations that TárkeÕ placed his supporters in the security apparatus. The àlkácá Gençlik DerneTMi, àGD, ["Idealist Youth Association"], which functioned as a youth branch for MHP, carried out some of the extreme right terror of the 1970s. Feroz Ahmad, a noted scholar of this period, commented in his 1993 work The Making of Modern Turkey, that, "Meanwhile, the Grey Wolves [álkácá], with TárkeÕ as deputy premier, also saw themselves as part of the state and operated with greater confidence in creating a climate of terror designed to intimidate their opponents." The álkácá fought radical leftist groups who also used terror tactics in the political violence that plagued Turkey in the 1970s. Over 5,000 were killed in right/left terror in the years immediately preceding theSeptember 12, 1980 military coup.

After the 1980 coup, TárkeÕ was arrested and his party closed down. MHP was recreated after a ban on pre-coup parties and politicians was lifted. The álkácá groups are active today and often battle leftist or Kurdish groups, though at a much lower level than the fighting of the 1970s. Some prominent members of the álkácá movement later entered mainstream politics in the 1980s and 1990s. Muhsin Yaz2c2oTMlu, chairman of the far-right "Great Unity Party" (Báyák Birlik Partisi), which has seven seats in parliament, was active in the àGD in the 1970s.

This incident comes only as the latest in a series of unexplained events alleging links among security forces, right-wing groups, and organized crime. In September 1996, Tevfik A-ansoy, a former right-wing militant reputed to have ties to organized crime, was assassinated; with him were two policemen from Foreign Minister Tansu Çiller's protection force. They were also killed, but their presence has not been explained. In the summer of 1996, the so-called "Söylemez" gang, made up largely of police and army officers, was uncovered and some of its members arrested. Allegedly Sedat Demir, former head of the Istanbul Security Branch, and the former deputy chief of the Istanbul police, Deniz Gökçetin, were involved with the group as well. In January 1997, three special team members were arrested for the July 1996 murder of Ämer Látfá Topal, Turkey's "Casino King," who purportedly had links to organized crime.

See also, "Mafya, devleti kuÕatt2," Cumhuriyet Hafta, September 6, 1996.

December 9, 1996; "Mit Raporu Do-ruland2,"Cumhuriyet Hafta, November 8, 1996.

ASALA, the Armenian Secret Army of the Liberation of Armenia, waged a terror campaign against Turkish diplomats and Turkish foreign representations, assassinating many and planting bombs.