Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contr

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force (part A)


Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force  (part A)

By Serdar Celik

How The Force Was Set Up

     Turkey joined NATO on April 4, 1952. In the same year, the
organisation known as "Gladio", or officially as "Super NATO",
whose arm in Turkey is the contra-guerrilla force called
Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu (STK - Tactical Mobilisation Group),
started its activities in the building of the CIA organisation
American Yardim Heyeti (American Aid Delegation - JUSMATT) in the
Bahcelievler district of the Turkish capital Ankara. (*1)
     During the 1960s, following on from the experience of Korea
and Vietnam, the American-dominated armies of NATO began to set up
their own special guerrilla warfare units. The 1959 military accord
between the Turkish and US governments envisaged the use of the
contra-guerrillas "also in the case of an internal rebellion
against the regime". (*2)
     The STK was restructured in 1965 and was renamed Ozel Harp
Dairesi (OHD - Special Warfare Department). It comes under the
authority of the President of General Staff and is also known by
other titles such as Ozel Kuvvetler Komutanlik (Special Forces
Command) or Harekat Dairesi (Operations Department).
     Although it was revealed through the "Gladio" affair in Italy
in 1990 that such secret organisations also existed in other member
states of NATO, and that they maintained close contacts with these
countries' secret services and had been involved in a series of
murders and bomb plots, the Turkish military and state authorities
continued to deny the existence of any such organisation in Turkey.
     Only after ex-CIA chief William Colby had revealed that "there
is also such an organisation in Turkey" did the Turkish authorities
withdraw their false pretentions that there was no Turkish Gladio.
On December 3, 1990, General Dogan Beyazit, President of the
Harekat Dairesi (Operation Department) of Turkey's General Staff
and General Kemal Yilmaz, commander of the Ozel Kuvvetler (Special
Forces), issued a press statement. In this statement they revealed
that the title of the special NATO organisation in Turkey was Ozel
Harp Dairesi (Special Warfare Department) and that its task was "to
organise rewsistence in the case of a communist occupation". They
further explained that this organisation had fought in Cyprus in
1974 and against the PKK in Kurdistan in 1980, but that its secret
members, whom they called "patriots", had "no connection with the
contra-guerrilla forces" (1). This latter claim is a blatant lie.
     The bloody dictator of the September 12, 1980 coup, Kenan
Evren, wrote in his memoirs that Prime Minister Suleyman Demiriel
had in the 1970s written to him of his wish to engage the Special
Warfare Department to deal with civil unrest (2). This was denied
by Demuriel. Bulent Ecevit, another Prime Minister of the 1970s,
revealed that: "As Prime Minister I first became aware of its
existence in 1974 through requests from Semih Sancar, chief of the
General Staff, for money for secret payments to the Special Warfare
Department. I was shocked". (3)
     How and why was the Special Warfare Department set up?
     The founding aim of the Department is: "In the case of a
communist occupation or of a rebellion, to use guerrilla methods
and all possible underground activities to bring an end to the
occupation." (4) The special war methods which are taught
supposedly for the prevention of a communist occupation include
among others "assasinations, bombings, armed robbery, torture,
attacks, kidnap, threats, provocation, militia training, hostage-
taking, arson, sabotage, propaganda, disinformation, violence and
extortion." (5)
     Textbooks by American contra-guerrilla experts were translated
into Turkish, and these special war methods were thus introduced
into Turkey. Some of the textbooks written by American experts are:
"U.S. Army FM 31/16" (contra-guerrilla operations), "U.S. Army
Special Warfare School" (contra-guerrilla tactics and techniques),
"FM 31/20" (special forces operational techniques), "FM 31/21
Special Forces Operations" (ST urban assignments, 31/21 guerrilla
warfare and special forces operations ), "FM 31/21 A. Special
Forces Operations (U)" (special forces secret operations). (6)
     The Turkish contra-guerrilla force developed the most complex
and sophisticated methods for its war against the PKK. Since 1985
a series of new textbooks and instructions for the contra-
guerrillas have been published. Just one example is the book "Ic
Guvenlik Konsepti" (The Concept of Internal Security), which was
published by the Special Warfare Command of the General Staff in
1985, and which is used as a textbook in the contra-guerrilla
camps.
     The underground elements of the Special Warfare Department -
 that is, the elements which carry out actions - are called contra-
guerrillas. The Special Warfare Department can be identified with
the contra-guerrillas, since it is the latter who put the
Department's work into practise.
     The Turkish contra-guerrillas have many schools in Turkey, in
which they receive their training - in Ankara, Bolu, Kayseri, Buca
near Izmir, Canakkale and since 1974 in Cyprus. "In the mountain
commando school in Bolu, green berets (Delta Forces) who fought in
Vietnam also got their training". (7)
     The contra-guerrilla teams, who are implanted with a fanatical
hatred of the "peril" of "communism" and "separatism", whose heads
are full of chauvanism, are unleashed against anyone who stands in
opposition to the regime. For their goal, which they pursue with
the support of the USA, is "the establishment of a competent
military and semi-military force which will, jointly with the
security forces, maintain internal security". (9)
     In their eyes not only the "communists", but each and every
democratic movement is a danger which they aim to counter using
guerrilla methods. The American military doctrine as presented in
the textbooks holds that "our security is threatened not only by
open attacks, but also by other types of threats which are even
more dangerous than open attacks but which do not look like open
attacks. These dangers consist of the attampts to bring about
transformations and changes from the inside." (10)
     Selected elements of the Turkish contra-guerrillas together
with the generals were all trained in contra-guerrilla schools in
the USA. The aims of this training are defined as follows: "The
goal of military aid is to educate soldiers from underdeveloped
countries in accordance with U.S. ideology and then to install them
advantageously in the leadership of their countries". (11) During
their training in the USA the contra-guerrilla forces "are taught
about social problems in their countries, and shown films which
demonstrate the aggression and subversion of the communists. They
learn how to handle explosives under the supervision of green
berets in Matamoros near the Mexican border, and they are taught
how to kill, stab or strangle somebody silently, etc". (12). Other
places where Turkish officials are trained are the Escuela de los
Americas in Panama, which is attached to the U.S. base Southern
Comfort, the Police Academy near Washington and the Schongau and
Oberammergau bases in Germany. (*3)
     Part of the Special Warfare Department is made up of officers
from official units known as A-units or Special Operations Units.
As the war became more intense, B-units were formed within the
Special Warfare Department, made up of professional volunteer
commando forces. Both types of units employ contra-guerrilla
tactics.
     The forces built by the Special Warfare Department have
everywhere formed organisations in the form of cells. These
elements, known as "patriots", are placed in front-line duties by
being infiltrated as agents-provocateurs into political parties,
administrative departments and opposition groups.
     The strongest pillar of the Special Warfare Department is the
Secret Service. In Turkey the Secret Service is subordinate to the
General Staff and so also to the Special Warfare Department. The
civilian government has no control whatsoever over the Secret
Service. In Turkey there are various secret services: the MIT
(National Secret Service Organisation) and the Secret Services of
the Gendarmerie, the General Staff, the Foreign Ministry, the
Director of Security (the political police) and the Presidential
Office. These secret services hold quarterly meetings under the
umbrella of the National Secret Service Coordinating Committee.
     The MIT has the greatest influence of all these organisations.
This Turkish secret service organisation was originally called MAH
and was restructured and renamed MIT in 1965. The MIT is a branch
of the CIA and collaborates with the Israeli secret service MOSSAD,
the German BND and earlier (up to 1975) with the Iranian SAVAK.
Many operations of the Special Warfare Department are carried out
in collaboration with the MIT. A third of the MIT's functionaries
are members of the armed forces and the rest are mostly retired
military personnel. It is a legal requirement that the chief of the
MIT must be a member of the armed forces. Since the founding of the
MIT, all the heads have been generals. They are appointed by the
General Staff or by the Special Warfare Department. The 1989 budget
of the MIT amounted to 42,745 million Turkish lira. (*4)
     Another organisation coming under the Special Warfare
Department is the Psychological Warfare Department. On November 9,
1983 this department became the TIB (Ministry for Social
Relations). Its headquarters are in Ankara. Its first chief was
Dogan Beyazit, who was at the same time also head of the Special
Warfare Department. He was in charge of propaganda operations which
the CIA program divided into "white, "grey" and "black" propaganda.
Many professors were employed within the TIB. (*5)
     The TIB has brought out numerous journals and pamphlets and
even comics. It formed satellite organisations under such names as
"The Institute for Research into Turkish Culture", "Turkish World
Research Institute", etc. The main aim of the TIB since the '80s
has been to develop the psychological front in the war against the
PKK.
     With this aim in mind, pamphlets are printed which try to
blame the PKK for massacres committed by the contra-guerrillas.
Such pamphlets are distributed in various languages in Europe,
purporting to originate from such ficticious publishers as "the
Union of Anatolian Women". Or else bogus leaflets attacking the PKK
are distributed under the names of existing or ficticious political
organisations. Posters and leaflets are put about which are full
of ridiculous propaganda such as those claiming that the PKK is an
Armenian organisation. Or television programmes and books are
produced which slander the PKK. In the towns of Kurdistan
professors hold seminars about how "Kurds are really Turks" etc.
The most effective institution from the point of view of the TIB -
 that is the Psychological Warfare Department of the Special
Warfare Department - is the press. Turkish daily newspapers such
as "Hurriyet", "Milliyet", "Tercumann", "Turkiye" and "Sabah",
which have become semi-official organs of the state, are pressured
into carrying out systematic propaganda against the PKK.
     Another area where the Special Warfare Department wields its
influence is of course the political parties. All state politicians
and all bourgeois parties in Turkey are under the control of the
Special Warfare Department. Here are just two examples:
     Turkish President Suleyman Demirel was the first Turk to get
a scholarship from the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, which is
controlled by the CIA. Later he held for many years the agency
rights for the firm of Morrison, which built the death cells in
Vietnam. (*6) When Demirel was in the USA in 1963, he was sent into
the Adalet Partisi (Justice Party). In 1965 he became the chairman
of this party and is now State President.
     Turgut Ozal, who was Prime Minister from 1983 to 1990 and
President from 1990 until his death in 1993, was an official of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).


(From Kurdistan Report #17 - February/March 1994)

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