Hanefi Avcı wrote book to create shield for himself, says Tayyar

Emrullah Bayrak

Şamil Tayyar, the author of “Operation Ergenekon,” “Shadow Government,” “Ambush” and other books that investigate unscrupulous groups inside the Turkish state bureaucracy, in his most recent book, “The Steel Core” released by Timaş Publications, says that Police Chief Hanefi Avcı wrote his recent book that attempts to undermine the Ergenekon investigation in order to create a protective shield for himself.

In his book, Tayyar offers evidence that a document drafted by Col. Dursun Çiçek as an army plot to discredit the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and the faith-based Fethullah Gülen movement was being implemented in Erzincan and Erzurum. He said that if that plot, known as the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, had succeeded, a large number of AK Party members would today be in jail. He said illegitimate groups inside the military and the allies of these groups started a large-scale operation to eliminate the AK Party.

Tayyar said that Avcı, in the latter’s most recent book, completely overlooked the events in Erzincan, noting this clearly showed that the book was written to serve a certain purpose. “I don’t think Avcı was part of this [shady] group in the beginning, but when he realized that his phones were wiretapped he became suspicious that he might be the target of a large-scale operation against him, as has happened with some other police chiefs. He tried to prevent this, negotiating with certain individual, but when all of that failed, he wrote this book and added a section about the Gülen movement.” In his book, Avcı claims that the Gülen movement is trying to take over state institutions. Tayyar said the chapter on the Gülen movement seems to be added later to the book.

“There are too many factual errors in that chapter. If it was his own project, which he had worked on, there wouldn’t be this many errors.” He also said that the first part of the book -- where Hanefi Avcı writes his memoirs as a police chief -- and the second part on the Gülen movement are also substantially stylistically distinct. Tayyar said, “Interviews with him also show that he doesn’t know that second part about Gülen very well. This really strengthens the suspicions that that part wasn’t penned by him. His book is part of some larger project, as can be seen by the serious support it has gotten and the amount of press it was receive. This is a very clear and overt sign.”

He says the core of the political arena, the steel core which gives his book its name, will undergo major changes, particularly after the Sept. 12 referendum which introduced a number of constitutional amendments. “I think this steel core that we can describe as the essence of these gangs is falling apart.”

Tayyar says that Avcı had become a popular figure after testifying to the parliamentary commission investigating the Susurluk affair of 1996, which was a probe into convoluted relationships between the mafia world, politicians and the police. Tayyar said Avcı was a “legend” for many, because he was the only person who had the courage to speak out about certain things that were major taboos at the time. Tayyar also said that Avcı in fact attempted to cover up the Susurluk investigation. He said in those years, a prosecutor indicted Avcı of being implicated in the murder of Vedat Aydın, the head of the Diyarbakır branch of the People’s Labor Party (HEP), a former Kurdish party. He also alleges that Avcı had an unseemly relationship with Yeşil, a mysterious figure who worked for the unofficial and illegal intelligence unit JİTEM and undertook a large number of assassinations and various other crimes on their behalf.

In the book, Tayyar also says politicians such as Erkan Mumcu, Süleyman Demirel and Tansu Çiller are also connected to the illegal elements inside the state.

Published on Today's Zaman, 25 September 2010, Saturday