Ex-PM says illegality in 90s created Ergenekon
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 15, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - A former prime minister has admitted that Turkey used illegal methods in its fight against terrorism during the 1990s and that today’s Ergenekon investigation could be seen as a consequence of those actions.
During a television show late Tuesday, the former prime minister and Rize independent deputy, Mesut Yılmaz, said: "We accept today that no political agenda can justify acts of terrorism. What we still could not agree on, however, was that the rule of law could not be cast aside. Illegal anti-terror operations caused corruption in the institutions that ignored it, and people employed for those purposes became the scourge of the state," Yılmaz said.
The use of illegal operations was due to practical needs, he said. Police formed a special unit to use against the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, or ASALA (a terrorist group that killed more than 40 Turkish diplomats and their family members), he said.
"That unit is the core of the group of people that we are now dealing with. They were 40 or 50 at the beginning. They received special training and sent to foreign countries. ASALA was dismantled, but then the terrorist (outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party) PKK started in 1990s," Yılmaz said. "Then the government, under Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, in 1993 and 1994 reorganized these units under the Special Operations Unit. The illegal movements of some anti-terror members were known to the state, but "those institutions, including the government, that supported them for legitimate purposes did not want to compromise them." Yılmaz was the leader of the Motherland Party until 2002 and prime minister for brief intervals in 1991, 1996, and between 1997 and 1999. Yılmaz also sounded pessimistic about the outcome of the Ergenekon case. Susurluk was an apparent incident, whereas Ergenekon is an ambiguous concept, he said.
"People are held in custody for 10 months without any concrete charges against them. I do not think anything of value will emerge from this," Yılmaz said.
The use of illegal operations was due to practical needs, he said. Police formed a special unit to use against the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, or ASALA (a terrorist group that killed more than 40 Turkish diplomats and their family members), he said.
"That unit is the core of the group of people that we are now dealing with. They were 40 or 50 at the beginning. They received special training and sent to foreign countries. ASALA was dismantled, but then the terrorist (outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party) PKK started in 1990s," Yılmaz said. "Then the government, under Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, in 1993 and 1994 reorganized these units under the Special Operations Unit. The illegal movements of some anti-terror members were known to the state, but "those institutions, including the government, that supported them for legitimate purposes did not want to compromise them." Yılmaz was the leader of the Motherland Party until 2002 and prime minister for brief intervals in 1991, 1996, and between 1997 and 1999. Yılmaz also sounded pessimistic about the outcome of the Ergenekon case. Susurluk was an apparent incident, whereas Ergenekon is an ambiguous concept, he said.
"People are held in custody for 10 months without any concrete charges against them. I do not think anything of value will emerge from this," Yılmaz said.