From an article in Zaman:
The Van Chief Public Prosecutor's office has revealed that a land mine explosion which killed seven soldiers last year was caused by mines planted by the Turkish military, contrary to the earlier widely held belief that they had been planted by outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists.The incident was revealed with the aid of an ex-officer who claimed the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) covered up many incidents caused in part by its weaponry and put the blame on the PKK.
Following the mine explosion in Çukurca, Hakkari province, on May 27 of last year, Van prosecutors launched an investigation which found that the mines belonged to the Turkish military. The prosecutors, who stated that the mines were planted on the orders of a Turkish commander, demanded that Brig. Gen. Zeki Es, Maj. Gen. Gürbüz Kaya, whose name is also mentioned in relation to the Sledgehammer coup plot, and other people responsible be brought to justice for their role in the deaths of the seven soldiers.
Its not just that the Turkish Military blamed the deaths on the PKK, its part of a pattern of deliberately killing Turkish soldiers in order to drum up nationalist hate.
Meanwhile, a former gendarmerie officer who lives in İzmir has repeated his claims that no blast scene investigation was carried out after the deaths of the seven soldiers in the land mine blast. “If we had carried out a blast scene investigation, it would have been revealed that the land mines were planted by the TSK; however, we were ordered to attribute them to the PKK,” stated İbrahim Kılınç, who was discharged from the military due to alleged anti-secular activities. Kılınç said he was dismissed from the military because his girlfriend wore the Islamic headscarf.
Kılınç also claimed that some forces in the military do not desire an end to terrorism. The ex-officer also accused top army brass of being unwilling to end terror in Turkey. Giving examples of incidents that he witnessed in Çukurca, he said gendarmerie intelligence services sometimes planted mines at specific locations and then reported the sites as news to television stations as if they had received intelligence regarding the locations of mines planted by the PKK.
Another example Kılınç gave is in regards to a gendarme’s death. Kılınç claimed that Pvt. Lokman Tekin, 21, died when he stepped on a land mine previously planted by the TSK. “A report was prepared without even going to the scene of the blast,” he noted. The blast was also attributed to the terrorist organization. “We should attach more importance to statements by soldiers who escaped the armed attack in Tokat’s Reşadiye district. It is not the work of a terrorist organization to attack a military vehicle from four directions. The aim of the attack was to kill all of the soldiers on the vehicle. The fact that not all of the soldiers were killed may spoil the game. The soldiers who escaped the attack may be able to shed light on the mystery. They may have seen those who attacked them,” he said, referencing an attack in December of last year. Seven soldiers were killed in Reşadiye when unidentified armed assailants attacked a military vehicle. Three others were wounded in the assault. The attack came shortly before the Constitutional Court was set to deliberate a closure case against the DTP.
No comments:
Post a Comment