Colonel detained for links to ’death wells’
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 25, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - Police arrested Kayseri Gendarmerie Commander Col. Cemal Temizöz late on Monday in relation to unsolved murders between 1992 and 1994 in Turkey’s Southeast.
The arrest order was issued by prosecutors working on the Ergenekon case after the excavation of wells owned by the Turkish Oil Pipeline Corporation, or BOTAŞ, in the Silopi district of Şırnak revealed bone fragments reportedly belonging to Kurds executed in the area.
According to an informer, the former Cizre mayor and head village guard Kamil Atak delivered supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, to the ultra-religious group Turkish Hizbullah to be interrogated, killed and buried in nearby Kuştepe, which was emptied out in 1991. The informer also claimed that Hizbullah was using Kuştepe as a training ground, and that he could identify where the bodies had been buried. Hizbullah, which authorities are alleged to have used against the PKK before the group was rooted out, has no relation to the Lebanese organization Hezbollah.
After police searched the village March 16 and found 20 human bones, Atak was detained and his testimony led prosecutors to Col. Temizöz. Atak’s son Temel Atak has been arrested and accused of murder and membership in an illegal organization.
Temizöz, then a captain, was the Cizre district gendarmerie commander between 1993 and 1996. According to several allegations, he ordered summary executions in the region. The Diyarbakır prosecutor detained Temizöz in his office in the gendarmerie command.
Musa Öncel, a lawyer for three non-commissioned officers arrested in Kayseri as part of the Ergenekon case, said the colonel had threatened his client, Sgt. Orhan Güleç, during an interrogation at the second air-maintenance center command. "’We will throw you into the acid wells. It’s nothing we haven’t done before,’ Col. Temizöz told my client," Öncel said at a March 12 press conference. Informers reported that wells like the ones in Silopi were used to hide bodies.
Another informer, and former PKK member, Abdülkadir Aygan, also claimed that Temizöz put a team together to commit murders. "They extorted money from locals and killed people they claimed were militants or because their relatives were in the mountains [in the PKK ranks]," Aygan said. "They disguised themselves as guerillas to rob passengers on buses."
According to an informer, the former Cizre mayor and head village guard Kamil Atak delivered supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, to the ultra-religious group Turkish Hizbullah to be interrogated, killed and buried in nearby Kuştepe, which was emptied out in 1991. The informer also claimed that Hizbullah was using Kuştepe as a training ground, and that he could identify where the bodies had been buried. Hizbullah, which authorities are alleged to have used against the PKK before the group was rooted out, has no relation to the Lebanese organization Hezbollah.
After police searched the village March 16 and found 20 human bones, Atak was detained and his testimony led prosecutors to Col. Temizöz. Atak’s son Temel Atak has been arrested and accused of murder and membership in an illegal organization.
Temizöz, then a captain, was the Cizre district gendarmerie commander between 1993 and 1996. According to several allegations, he ordered summary executions in the region. The Diyarbakır prosecutor detained Temizöz in his office in the gendarmerie command.
Musa Öncel, a lawyer for three non-commissioned officers arrested in Kayseri as part of the Ergenekon case, said the colonel had threatened his client, Sgt. Orhan Güleç, during an interrogation at the second air-maintenance center command. "’We will throw you into the acid wells. It’s nothing we haven’t done before,’ Col. Temizöz told my client," Öncel said at a March 12 press conference. Informers reported that wells like the ones in Silopi were used to hide bodies.
Another informer, and former PKK member, Abdülkadir Aygan, also claimed that Temizöz put a team together to commit murders. "They extorted money from locals and killed people they claimed were militants or because their relatives were in the mountains [in the PKK ranks]," Aygan said. "They disguised themselves as guerillas to rob passengers on buses."