The Susurluk scandal () or Susurluk accident (), was a 1996 political scandal in Turkey that exposed a close relationship between the Turkish government, the ultra-nationalistic paramilitary Grey Wolves organization and the Turkish mafia. It took place during the peak of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict in the mid-1990s.
The scandal surfaced with a car–truck collision on November 3, 1996, near the small town of Susurluk in the province of Balıkesir. The victims included Hüseyin Kocadağ, the deputy chief of the Istanbul Police Department, Sedat Bucak, a Member of Parliament representing Şanlıurfa Province, and Abdullah Çatlı, the leader of the Grey Wolves and a contract killer for the National Intelligence Organization (Turkey) (MİT), who was on Interpol's red list at the time of his death. The peculiar connections of those involved in the crash with Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar brought to light the existence of a deep state in Turkey and an internal power struggle within the Turkish political structure.
The infighting had its roots in the state's escalating low-intensity conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that had been taking place since 1984. Towards the end of 1992, a furious debate in the National Security Council (NSC) about how to proceed was taking place. The same year, the NSC ordered a coordinated black operations campaign against the PKK using special forces.Berkan, Ismet. "Gladio MGK Kararıyla Kuruldu", Radikal, 1996, quoted in See also The Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, the "Counter-Guerrilla", contributed much of these special forces.
Deputy Prime Minister Tansu Çiller tasked the police force, under the leadership of then-chief of police Mehmet Ağar, with crippling the PKK and assassinating its leader, Abdullah Öcalan. The police unit responsible for this job was the Special Operations Department (, ÖHD). Abdullah Çatlı also took part. This caused consternation in the MİT, which had formerly counted on Çatlı to undertake reprisals against the militant Armenian organization ASALA. Especially concerned was Mehmet Eymür of the MİT's Operations/Counter-Terrorism Department, who had irreconcilable differences with Ağar. Those involved then split into two camps - those loyal to Mehmet Ağar and those loyal to Mehmet Eymür. The scandal has hence been pithily described as "the battle of the two Mehmets".
Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak described the police camp as "pro-European", and the MİT camp as "pro-American". According to Kaynak, Ağar's gang aimed to create a state within a state, complete with a shadow army (the village guard system), and intelligence organization, inside the police force. The MİT ultimately purged the gang in a crash that was passed off as an accident. The subsequent media scrutiny surrounding the crash led to several investigations and the resignation of both Çiller and Ağar, though no government official associated with the scandal faced any immediate criminal trial.
People involved
Mehmet Ağar, Interior Minister, police chief until March 1995. Tanju Akça, Diamond kingpin. Sedat Bucak, DYP Şanlıurfa MP, chieftain of a 20,000-strong village guard clan in Siverek. Abdullah Çatlı, leader of the ultranationalist Grey Wolves, contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla. Ayhan Çarkın, prominent member of the Police Special Operation Teams Department (, ÖHD). Tansu Çiller, deputy prime minister, chairman of the DYP. Korkut Eken, expert on special warfare. Affiliations with both the MİT and the ÖHD. Recruited Kurdish militias to fight the PKK in the early 1990s. Lazım Esmaeili and Askar Simitko. Iranian SAVAMA agents. Mehmet Eymür, head of the MİT's Counter-Terrorism department. Doğan Güreş, Chief of the General Staff (December 1990 – August 1994) , head of the Istanbul police school. Former deputy chief of the Istanbul police. Former head of the Special Operations Department. Teoman Koman, commander of the Turkish Gendarmerie (which JİTEM operates under) 1995–1997. Sönmez Köksal, undersecretary of the MİT. İbrahim Şahin, deputy chief of the ÖHD. Gonca Us, Abdullah Çatlı's lover; former beauty queen.
Of the 59 people named in the third MİT report, 17 were dead by the time the report was published. Among them are 4 politicians, 4 businessmen, 14 mafia-connected nationalists, 5 military personnel, 13 security personnel, 4 MİT personnel, and 8 mafia-connected drug smugglers.
Background Kurdish–Turkish conflict
The fight against Kurdish separatists, most notably the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), reached its apex in the early 1990s. The PKK wanted to proclaim independence by 1994 at the latest, with their breakaway state centered in Şırnak. The PKK essentially controlled the towns of Şırnak and Cizre from their hiding posts in the mountains of Cudi, Gabar, and Namaz.
The military decided that anyone who could be persuaded to fight the PKK—not just the military, but the police, the mafia, defected Kurdish opposition groups, Village guards etc.—had to make a concerted effort. The "1993 Strategy" was drafted. It called for targeting individuals suspected of financing the PKK, pre-emptively catching members of the PKK using special forces, comprehensive psychological warfare, and a revamping of the military's inventory.
The proposal brought before the National Security Council was initially rejected. Notable detractors were president Turgut Özal and general Eşref Bitlis, who favored a peaceful solution. Both died in 1993. Bitlis was killed in a plane crash, while Özal purportedly died of a heart attack. Çiller's rhetoric became more hawkish after this period.
With the opposition out of the way, the plan was executed, with Lieutenant General Hasan Kundakçı at the helm of the military operations. Professional assassins like Abdullah Çatlı and Alaattin Çakıcı took part, along with 2,500–5,000 members of the special forces. Many of these men were plucked from the ranks of the clandestine Counter-Guerrilla; the Turkish branch of the Operation Gladio. The Counter-Guerrilla was originally established to prepare for the subversion of a possible Warsaw Pact invasion. However, once the USSR dissolved, the Counter-Guerrilla were used to fight the PKK.
It is alleged that during this period, a delegate including Çiller, Demirel, Hüsamettin Cindoruk (Speaker of the Parliament), Aydın İlter (General Commander of the Gendarmerie), Nahit Menteşe (Interior Minister), and Ağar (as police chief) held a meeting with twelve tribal chiefs.Ahmet Zeydan, Tahir Adiyaman, Kamil Atak, Abdurrahman Ozbek, Suleyman Tatar, Abdurrahman Seylan, Hazim Abat, Osman Demir, Ramazan Cetin, Dilbaz Uncu, Isterder Ertus and Hakki Ture. The source that follows has details on the tribes of Adiyaman, Ture, Tatar, Babat, and Benek. The officials assured these warlords, known to have lengthy criminal records,Failing to report let alone employing convicted criminals is a violation of Article 296 of the Turkish Criminal Code. that the state would supply them with whatever arms they needed in order to fight the PKK. The warlords requested MG-3 machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, flame throwers, howitzers, and police tanks. The brass refused the last two items, and compensated by increasing the wages of the village guards (militias) under the warlords' employ.
In September 1993, Ağar, Eken, Şahin, Ertuğrul Ogan and weapons trafficker Ertaç Tinar traveled to Israel over Zurich. Ağar contacted senior Israeli intelligence officials. After some bargaining, Eken took delivery of US$50 million worth of weapons (though only half of it was paid for) from the Özel Harekat Dairesi (ÖHD, police special forces department). On paper, the weapons appeared to be donated from Tinar's company, Hospro. Some of them later went missing; 10 9mm Micro Uzis, 10 Super MGs, and 10 22-caliber Beretta revolvers with silencers, plus an AL 50Hv rocket launcher. Three of the Berettas were found in the Susurluk crash. A criminal investigation was launched against the deputy chair of the ÖHD, İbrahim Şahin, but he suffered a traffic accident and claimed to have lost his memory.
On 3 November 1994, Çiller, Köksal, Eymür, and Ağar left for Israel to establish a co-operation agreement on counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing. This was the first meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries. Çiller and Ağar—not the MİT officials—privately talked to MOSSAD officials about equipment they needed to catch Öcalan, who was in Syria. A rich assortment of assassination weapons was delivered to the ÖHD on 15 November, including 2 12.7-caliber Beretta telescopic rifles, 8 pump-action shotguns, 280 automatic Uzis, 20 7.62mm Galli rifles, 100 silencers, 145 rifle telescopes. Can Dündar suggests that the weapons were used for political purposes other than to assassinate Öcalan.
The chairman of the Workers' Party, Doğu Perinçek, alleged that "the Mafia-Gladio dictatorship" was subordinate to Çiller and Ağar.
Turf war The origins of the turf war date back to the reprisal operations in the 1980s against the militant Armenian organization ASALA. Former president Kenan Evren ordered the MİT to organize a special forces unit headed by Çatlı in order to attack members of the ASALA and the PKK. MİT's Deputy Regional Director Metin Günyol formed the team, composed of Çatlı (alias Mehmet Sarol), Oral Çelik (Atilla Çelik) and Mehmet Şener (Durmuş Unutmaz). Others included former nationalist club leaders Ramiz Ongun, Enver Tortaş, Tevfik Esensoy, Bedri Ateş (Uğur Özgöbek), Rıfat Yıldırım, Türkmen Onur and Üzeyir Bayraklı.Ergenekon document reveals MİT’s assassination secrets , Today's Zaman, 19 August 2008.This information was among twelve pages of the Inspection Board report that were classified; it can be found in folder 171 of the Ergenekon indictment's annex.
After the operations, Çatlı was distanced from the MİT for engaging in criminal activities for personal gain. He drifted to the police force, led by Mehmet Ağar. Once a Counter-Terrorism department was established in the MİT by 1996, Çatlı's unit came to be perceived as a competitor.
Fikri Sağlar of the Republican People's Party (CHP) says Chief of Staff Doğan Güreş was behind much of the planning that led to the turf war between the MİT and the police force. (After Güreş stepped down from the military in August 1994, he joined Çiller's party, DYP.) Sağlar alleges that Güreş suggested the appointment of Nuri Gündeş as undersecretary of the MİT, but the president's office refused, so Çiller had Gündeş create a separate intelligence agency called the Public Security Headquarters (, curiously shortening to KGB). Upon hearing news of unsavory activity from the KGB, president Süleyman Demirel had it dismantled. The MİT defended itself against Ağar and Gündeş by appointing their rival, Mehmet Eymür, who had dished the dirt on the former two in a 1987 report. Not to be outdone, Ağar hired Korkut Eken as someone who was knowledgeable about Eymür. The scandal happened only because of Çiller's incompetence, said Sağlar.
Mafias The deputy chairman of ANAP, Yaşar Okuyan, broke down the mafia revenue (per annum, in trillion TL (now million TL)) as follows: 500 (drugs), 200 (gambling), 300 (money laundering). The total is equivalent to a black money market of $3.5 billion/year.
Three of the better-known gangs involved in scandal were the Kocaeli Gang (Hadi Özcan), the Söylemez Gang and the Yüksekova Gang. The Soylemez Brothers gang (which included serving police and military) were caught with plans to raid the headquarters of the Bucak clan in Siverek, Urfa, the head of which is the DYP member of parliament (MP) Sedat Bucak, the only survivor of the crash. The blood feud between the Bucaks and the Söylemez gang is allegedly based on the fight between PKK and Bucaks.
Drug trafficking