SEDAT PEKER VIDEOS
Former intelligence officer Korkut Eken denies involvement in murder of journalist Kutlu Adalı
Photo: AA/File
Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish
Retired lieutenant colonel Korkut Eken has denied any involvement in the 1996 assassination of Journalist Kutlu Adalı in Cyprus.
Organized crime boss Sedat Peker on Sunday (May 23) claimed that Eken, a police intelligence officer at the time, had approached him about an assassination attempt on Adalı. "I gave him my brother," he said.
After Peker's revelation, his brother Atilla Peker filed a petition with prosecutors, explaining in detail how he and Eken had traveled to Cyprus and how the assassination attempt failed.
Retired General Galip Mendi, who was serving in Cyprus at the time, confirmed yesterday that Eken and Peker had visited him but said he didn't know anything about the assassination.
CLICK - Retired general partly confirms Peker brothers' claims about killing of journalist Adalı
Eken made similar statements to daily Sözcü today, saying that they had traveled to Cyprus to make examinations about the operations of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the region.
"I reported and gave them to Corps Commander Hasan Kundakçı pasha," he said. "Am I a killer? Don't state officials and intelligence units know this?
He said General Kundakçı, the then commander of Turkey's Peace Force in Cyprus, had asked for help from then Director General of Security Mehmet Ağar against the PKK's activities on the island. He had been then assigned by Ağar to go to Cyprus, he added.
As to why he was together with Atilla Peker, he said he had asked him to come "just in case."
In his YouTube video, Sedat Peker claimed that Eken had described Adalı as a "traitor who sold Cyprus to the Greeks," manipulating his patriotism. He said he was pleased that his brother wasn't able to Adalı as he later understood that he was an "honorable man."
Peker has been making video confessions on YouTube about state-mafia relations since early May, targeting current and former government officials.
Shortly after the alleged failed attempt, Adalı was shot dead in front of his home in early 1996 after writing articles about the armed robbery of the St. Barnabas Monastery in Famagusta, Cyprus. He had claimed millions of dollars worth of icons were stolen from the monastery.
In his petition to the prosecutors, Attila Peker said Eken had later informed him that "the business was done," referring to the murder of Adalı.
Eken dismissed these claims, saying that he didn't know anything about journalist Adalı.
The assassination of Kutlu AdalıKutlu Adalı, a journalist from Northern Cyprus, was shot dead in front of his house on July 6, 1996, shortly after writing an article about the armed robbery of millions of dollars worth of icons from St. Barnabas Monastery in Famagusta, Cyprus. In his article penned on March 23, 1996, nine days after the robbery in question, he wrote that the official vehicles affiliated with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Head of Civil Defense Organization were used during the related raid. While he was known as nationalist and patriotic by the Turkish politicians and his circle in Cyprus, he was a dissident of Rauf Denktaş, the then TRNC President. His house was targeted in an armed attack after penning an article about Denktaş titled "The lunatic at the minaret." In his articles, Adalı was talking about a series of paramilitary organizations operating in Cyprus. He was alleging that several murders committed before Turkey's "Cyprus Peace Operation" in 1974 were in fact committed by them and the Cypriot Greeks were blamed. On April 2, 1996, Adalı announced that he was receiving threats. The complaints of Adalı were not taken into account by the security officers. Adalı was shot to death in front of his house on July 6, 1996. The investigation launched by the Northern Cypriot authorities remained inconclusive and it could not be found who had committed the murder. So, his wife İlkay Adalı applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and filed a suit against Turkey. Handing down its judgment on March 31, 2005, the ECtHR convicted Turkey on the grounds of "the failure to carry out an adequate and credible inquiry into the murder." What did Sedat Peker say?Accused of leading a criminal organization and currently abroad, Sedat Peker has been attracting millions of views to his YouTube videos about the "state-mafia relations" in Turkey, He targets current and former government officials, especially Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu and former Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar. In his 7th video shared on May 23, Sedat Peker made some allegations about the assassination of Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adalı: "At that time, we were all together, Mehmet Ağa, Korkut Eken... We were young, we were patriots. They would usually give me jobs related to businesspeople rather than unsolved murders," he said, referring to the widespread extrajudicial killings at the time, for which both Ağar and Eken stood trial. A court yesterday overturned their acquittal of killing 19 people. "[Eken] told me that 'There is a man in Cyprus, he wants to sell Cyprus to the Greeks.' He said 'two professionals'... I told him 'I'll give you my brother, Atilla Peker.' He is a specialist, he grew up on the streets. "Another team affiliated with them killed [Adalı]. I came across brother Korkut, he said to me 'That job is done.' "Atilla Peker will tell the truth. If we killed him, I'd say we killed him. It's time-barred now. I always watched his spouse's struggle from afar. What should I say? We are all the same." After the video, Attila Peker was detained in a villa in Fethiye's Kayaköy Neighborhood. Police officers also detained Yunus O., who is said to be his bodyguard, and seized an unlicensed gun and two magazines. Taken into custody together with his private guard, Atilla Peker was released on probation with an international travel ban. The Fethiye Prosecutor's Office has also launched an investigation into the assassination of Kutlu Adalı. Speaking in a live program on Habertürk TV on May 24, Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu announced that he had given an instruction for an investigation into the death of Kutlu Adalı, who was killed in an armed attack in front of his house on July 6, 1996. |
(DŞ/VK)