Ergenekon prosecutors plan to review key murder case of Çatlı and ‘Yeşil’
Abdullah Çatlı and Mahmut Yıldırım
22 January 2009 /BÜLENT CEYHAN
Prosecutors in the
Ergenekon case will review another court case involving two of the
deadliest men in Turkey, about whom only little is known due to their
shadowy backgrounds and secret dealings within the state hierarchy.
The Ergenekon terrorist
organization is a clandestine group with a highly effective and
allegedly illegal branch in the gendarmerie charged with plotting to
overthrow the government. Ergenekon is thought to be a remnant, or a new
form, of earlier groups nested within the state to fight Soviet-type
communism, and later ethnic terrorism, without having to always play by
the rules.
Ergenekon prosecutors are interested in a case in which two men -- Abdullah Çatlı, who was killed in a car crash in 1996 while carrying the ID card of Mehmet Özbay, and Mahmut Yıldırım, who used the codename "Yeşil" during shadowy undercover operations -- are the prime suspects.
Both men, particularly Yeşil, are thought to be responsible for countless “executions” and “unsolved murders” in the country. Yeşil is presumed dead, although this has yet to be established officially. And not Çatlı, but rather his fake identity, Özbay, is the suspect in the case. That’s why both men, although both likely to be dead, are officially still being sought as fugitives. The Bakırköy 4th High Criminal Court is hearing the case, in which Çatlı and Yeşil are charged with kidnapping and subsequently killing two Iranian drug smugglers in 1995.
According to the background facts on the case, two Iranian drug smugglers, Asker Simtko and Lazem Esmaili, were kidnapped on Jan. 14, 1995, as they were walking into the Imperial Casino of İstanbul’s Polat Renaissance Hotel. It is believed that the kidnapping was carried out by Çatlı and Yeşil, under the assumed identities of Özbay and Ahmet Demir, respectively.
Çatlı and Yeşil later called the Iranians’ relatives for ransom. Esmaili’s brother Ahmet Esmaili put a total of $350,000 into two accounts at two different Ankara Ziraat Bank branches opened under the name Ahmet Demir. But the two men were nevertheless tortured to death. The police found their bodies on Jan. 28, 1995, in Silivri, near İstanbul. The Silivri Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation. In 1998, arrest warrants were issued for the two suspects.
According to reports filed by the gendarmerie, the two Iranians were not killed by Yeşil and Çatlı but by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for preparing a list of Turkey’s Kurdish businessmen that had helped the PKK financially. The PKK was also reported to have claimed responsibility for the two deaths, stating that “the two Iranians who worked against the PKK and were suspected to have worked with the National Intelligence Organization [MİT] were punished by metropolitan revenge teams.”
According to this claim, Çatlı and Yeşil had the Iranians kidnapped by their own men wearing police uniforms and then delivered the two men to the PKK. Former MİT Anti-Terrorism Department Chairman Mehmet Eymür, in an article he wrote on the Web site atin.org, confirmed that Simtko and Esmaili (who used the code name Zeya Nazım) had worked for the MİT. He also stated that the two compiled a detailed list of businessmen who contributed money to the PKK, of which then-Prime Minister Tansu Çiller had spoken in 1996, saying: “We know who they are. We have lists in our hands.” Eymür also wrote that the two men were questioned by militants affiliated with the PKK, who discovered many names involved in shady dealings, which ranged from the heroin trade to murders of Kurdish businessmen.
An accident occurred in 1996 when the investigation into the two Iranians’ deaths was still under way. While Çatlı died in the accident, his other identity, Özbay, which was actually stolen from a businessman who applied to the Turkish Consulate in Chicago for a new passport in 1995 after losing his old one, is alive, according to official records. Mahmut Yıldırım, although presumed dead, has not been declared as such officially. This is why there are still arrest warrants out for the two men. In 2003, a criminal case was launched against the two, who have been accused of many crimes.
Ergenekon Prosecutor Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel has now received the file he had requested on the two men last November, and the prosecutors will be reviewing the file soon.
Ergenekon prosecutors are interested in a case in which two men -- Abdullah Çatlı, who was killed in a car crash in 1996 while carrying the ID card of Mehmet Özbay, and Mahmut Yıldırım, who used the codename "Yeşil" during shadowy undercover operations -- are the prime suspects.
Both men, particularly Yeşil, are thought to be responsible for countless “executions” and “unsolved murders” in the country. Yeşil is presumed dead, although this has yet to be established officially. And not Çatlı, but rather his fake identity, Özbay, is the suspect in the case. That’s why both men, although both likely to be dead, are officially still being sought as fugitives. The Bakırköy 4th High Criminal Court is hearing the case, in which Çatlı and Yeşil are charged with kidnapping and subsequently killing two Iranian drug smugglers in 1995.
According to the background facts on the case, two Iranian drug smugglers, Asker Simtko and Lazem Esmaili, were kidnapped on Jan. 14, 1995, as they were walking into the Imperial Casino of İstanbul’s Polat Renaissance Hotel. It is believed that the kidnapping was carried out by Çatlı and Yeşil, under the assumed identities of Özbay and Ahmet Demir, respectively.
Çatlı and Yeşil later called the Iranians’ relatives for ransom. Esmaili’s brother Ahmet Esmaili put a total of $350,000 into two accounts at two different Ankara Ziraat Bank branches opened under the name Ahmet Demir. But the two men were nevertheless tortured to death. The police found their bodies on Jan. 28, 1995, in Silivri, near İstanbul. The Silivri Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation. In 1998, arrest warrants were issued for the two suspects.
According to reports filed by the gendarmerie, the two Iranians were not killed by Yeşil and Çatlı but by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for preparing a list of Turkey’s Kurdish businessmen that had helped the PKK financially. The PKK was also reported to have claimed responsibility for the two deaths, stating that “the two Iranians who worked against the PKK and were suspected to have worked with the National Intelligence Organization [MİT] were punished by metropolitan revenge teams.”
According to this claim, Çatlı and Yeşil had the Iranians kidnapped by their own men wearing police uniforms and then delivered the two men to the PKK. Former MİT Anti-Terrorism Department Chairman Mehmet Eymür, in an article he wrote on the Web site atin.org, confirmed that Simtko and Esmaili (who used the code name Zeya Nazım) had worked for the MİT. He also stated that the two compiled a detailed list of businessmen who contributed money to the PKK, of which then-Prime Minister Tansu Çiller had spoken in 1996, saying: “We know who they are. We have lists in our hands.” Eymür also wrote that the two men were questioned by militants affiliated with the PKK, who discovered many names involved in shady dealings, which ranged from the heroin trade to murders of Kurdish businessmen.
An accident occurred in 1996 when the investigation into the two Iranians’ deaths was still under way. While Çatlı died in the accident, his other identity, Özbay, which was actually stolen from a businessman who applied to the Turkish Consulate in Chicago for a new passport in 1995 after losing his old one, is alive, according to official records. Mahmut Yıldırım, although presumed dead, has not been declared as such officially. This is why there are still arrest warrants out for the two men. In 2003, a criminal case was launched against the two, who have been accused of many crimes.
Ergenekon Prosecutor Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel has now received the file he had requested on the two men last November, and the prosecutors will be reviewing the file soon.
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