The Hanefi Avcı affair: a dramatic detective story (2)

Faruk Mercan

Sarp Kuray, a former naval officer accused of having founded the 16 Haziran (or June 16) terrorist organization, says: “...The people who staged those attacks without my orders are freely walking around outside.

I, on the other hand, was sentenced to life in jail as the only convict…I myself am clueless about how the organization was able to gather so much intelligence.”

The meaning of these words is clear as daylight. Sarp Kuray is implying that control of the 16 Haziran organization was taken out of his hands by secret intelligence units within the state.

In addition to this, friends of Orhan Yılmazkaya -- the alleged leader of DK and a graduate of the political science department of the Ankara University and whom was killed in a clash with the police in İstanbul -- who were in the military with him during 1998 say that Yılmazkaya had nothing to do with revolutionaries until recently. The person accused of being the current leader of DK, named Ulaş, is no revolutionary. To the contrary, he has an “Ülkücü” (Idealist) background, which is an ultraconservative and strict form of Turkish nationalism. One should not be surprised if when the prosecutors complete their indictment and press charges the ensuing process reveals links between the DK and the formation known as “Ergenekon,” whose suspected members have been on trial for three years.

Certainly, Avcı himself might not know about this part of the organization. But even his helping out his friend Necdet Kılıç during his interrogation process are enough to bring him before a court under the Turkish legal system.

There is also the question of the allegations put forth by Avcı in his book targeting the Gülen movement. As it is very well known to security experts who are closely monitoring the Turkish police force, we are seeing a new-generation of police officers in the past two decades. The person who laid the foundation for this is eighth president Turgut Özal.

Özal, who served as the prime minister between 1983 and 1989 did two important things in the police department, which has been extremely corrupt and deeply involved with the business world and mafia during the ‘70s and ‘80s. Following a decree by Özal, a large number of police chiefs between the ages of 33 –35, who had only one-star at the time, were given four-stars and appointed provincial police chiefs. Normally, heading a province’s police department was something that could only happen when one reached 45, even 50 in some places. For example, Hüseyin Çapkın, who is currently head of the İstanbul Police Department, was one of these individuals. He was 34 when he was appointed the chief of police for Yozgat. The second thing Özal did was to hire young people with university degrees and who had graduated from the Police Academy for the police department, rather than people who had only graduated from the Police Academy.

This process that was started with Özal in the ‘80s caused the collapse of a structure that was dominant in the Turkish police force until that time. The police force no longer always turned a blind eye to the criminal elements among its members. For example, until the 1990s, one can find almost no higher-ranking police officers that were tried in court. Because as Hanefi Avcı points out in his book, everyone kept a close eye on whatever the others did in a sense of professional solidarity.

This is the fundamental point that will help us understand the Avcı affair. For the past one-and-a-half years, Avcı had openly been critical of the Gülen movement, which he held responsible for the arrest of his close friend, Deputy Police Chief Emin Arslan who was linked to a person that was being accused of smuggling drugs. Avcı had accused Mehmet Berk -- the prosecutor who issued Aslan’s arrest order -- of taking orders from Fethullah Gülen. Berk said: “I have never taken orders from anybody in my career. If there is such a person, they have no dignity,” offering a clear assurance to the Turkish public and he also filed charges against Avcı, demanding financial compensation. In this situation, Avcı has to prove that Berk is a member of the Gülen community. Likewise, another prosecutor who was accused by Avcı of being a member of the Gülen movement also filed for compensation. Others might follow in his steps, because according to Avcı, almost all of the judges and prosecutors in Turkish courts are members of the Gülen movement.

It was the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) that appointed Avcı the head of the Organized Crime and Smuggling Department -- one of the most important positions in the Turkish police force -- in 2003. Until then, Avcı was always placed in lower-profile positions in the background. Avcı served in this position for two years, and then was made the chief of police for Edirne, one of Turkey’s larger provinces, and then for Eskişehir. Avcı’s children attended private schools opened by businessmen who were dedicated to the Gülen movement free of charge, because children of high-level bureaucrats, such as Avcı’s children, are given priority when it comes to scholarships quotas at Gülen schools.

Avcı has held the Gülen movement responsible for the situation of his close friend Emin Aslan got himself into because of his human weaknesses and he took it so far as to wage a war against the Gülen movement. Erdoğan’s government also took its share of Avcı’s ire. Avcı found it hard to accept that he had been removed from his position in Ankara and appointed to Edirne. He always had a hope that he would be assigned to a higher position by the government, but this never happened.

Some observers assert that Avcı wrote his book to declare himself innocent when his out-of-the-ordinary past came to the attention of the judiciary with the DK case file. This way, he hoped to at least have the support of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and media outlets known for their anti-Gülen stance.

We will see all the aspects of this affair when the prosecutors start the court process and the trial beings. However, perhaps it is not too early to say this. The average Turk is experiencing a great deal of frustration because of the fall of the legendary police chief seen as the epitome of integrity.

This same thing is now being said by prosecutors for DK, the continuation of Kuray’s organization. The prosecutors say DK is a terrorist organization that was established by some intelligence officers whose main target is to stage bloody attacks that will prepare the ground for a coup.

Published on Today's Zaman, 26 October 2010, Tuesday