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United States and NATO inspired 'psychological warfare operations' against the 'Kurdish communist threat' in Turkey

Desmond Fernandes and Iskender Ozden1

The sheer extent to which the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have been responsible for consciously and structurally providing aid, training and technical expertise to Turkish contra-guerrilla death squads, repressive state forces and far right fascist groups makes for chilling reading. In pursuit of US governmental and NATO Cold War and post Cold War agendas, secretive and often publicly unaccountable initiatives have been undertaken in order to organise, protect and support repressive and anti-democratic Turkish state military mechanisms in their targeting actions against the internal 'communist threat'. The internal 'communist threat', observes Chomsky, is "used here in the technical sense (which) has (been) assumed in American political discourse, referring to labour leaders, peasant organisers ... organising self-help groups, and anyone who has the 'wrong' priorities and thus gets in our way."2 Kurdish 'nationalist' and/or pro-democratic/pro-socialist movements which have sought to defend peoples' labour and human/cultural/political rights within the region, and/or query the 'colonial/neo-colonial/pro-NATO/repressive' orientation of the militarised Turkish state, have similarly been targeted as 'communist threats'.3

The Truman Doctrine, the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO) and psychological warfare initiatives.

With the Truman Doctrine of 1947, millions of dollars worth of military equipment assistance was provided to the Turkish terror state to counter the internal and external 'communist threat.' As President Truman's address to Congress on March 12th, 1947, made all too clear: "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures ... Should we fail Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East. We must take immediate and resolute action."4
By the end of fiscal year 1950, resolute action had been undertaken: Over US $ 200 million in military aid had been received by Turkey, "along with 1,200 US military advisers."5 Between 1950 and 1979, a further $ US 5.8 billion in official military aid was forthcoming: "Arms supply and training programmes helped to integrate the Turkish military, police and intelligence services into those of the United States. Under the Military Assistance Programme, 19,193 Turks received US training between 1950 and 1979."6 Lord Kinross, indeed, suggests that a much higher number of Turkish troops were, in fact, trained. By 1954 alone, "the American Military Mission claim(ed) to have trained, in the Turkish army, a force of thirty thousand technicians."7
US advisors also assisted Turkish authorities with their covert monitoring activities of Kurdish political prisoners. Musa Anter, for example, confirms - in his Memoirs - that a 'Special Team' from the US was sent in 1959 to the Turkish prison he was in, to assist the authorities with the decoding of messages between Kurdish prisoners.8 Turkish Interior Ministry reports further reveal that Turkish governing circles clearly understood that they would be provided with economic support and US military and political encouragement in their implementation of the on-going Kurdish genocide9 as long as they could keep officially identifying the Kurds as a 'communist threat' to American officials (even at times when they clearly did not represent such a threat, and could not produce any evidence to the Americans to that effect): "This (Kurdish targeting) operation should be used ... to obtain economic aid from the US. The event should (merely) be represented to the American authorities as a 'Communist Kurd Movement'. To the relatives of the suspects (targeted), the event should be explained as a 'Communist Movement' (despite the fact that) ... so far, there's no evidence that can be used against the suspects."10
Ghassemlou and Kendal have also established that the US government, which was "in control of all (the) military decisions"11 of a Cold War Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO) Pact between Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Britain, had decided that a central purpose of this pact was to assist the Turkish and Iranian governments with their psychological warfare operations against "any attempts on the part of the Kurdish people."12 As Randal has confirmed: "In the 1950's, the Baghdad Pact - rebaptised CENTO when Iraq dropped out following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958 - amounted to Western approval of anti-Kurd animus, enshrined in the Saadabad Treaty of 1937."13
Besikci further argues that US government supported 'psychological' research projects were conducted in the 1960's in order to strategically assist the Turkish state with its assimilation and anti-Kurdish policies: "In 1962, Professor Frei, an American, carried out a survey throughout Turkey, in conjunction with the Bureau of Research and Testing at the Ministry of Education, and the US government's Agency for International Development (AID) ... From the information provided at the end of the research project, it becomes clear that American government officials proposed to the Turkish government that the best way to fight against the spread of the Kurdish struggle was through the creation and institutionalisation of a party based on religion."14 As Besikci confirms, this advice "was taken seriously by the Turkish government."15 There was also an apparent offer by the US government in 1962 to establish a 'Kurdish' radio station - costing US $33 million - which would broadcast psychological warfare propaganda which would be anti-communist, anti-Kurdish nationalist in nature, and in keeping with "the USA and Turkey's ideology."16

The CIA's role in covert action operations.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), moreover, began to covertly fund and train fascist paramilitary right wing gangs and virulently anti-Kurdish organisations in Turkey - including the Organisation to Fight Communism and the National Action Party (NAP/MHP) - along the 'successful' lines of the Bicchierai 'anti-communist' paramilitary gang in Italy. As Christopher Simpson has ascertained, "the role of this (Bicchierai) band" - which was financed by the CIA using 'black currency' which "came from captured German Nazi assets, including money and gold that the Nazis had looted from the Jews"17 - "was beatings of left wing candidates and activists, breaking up political meetings and intimidating voters. Bicchierai's troops became the forerunners of a number of other similar paramilitary gangs funded by the CIA in Germany, Greece, Turkey and several other countries over the next decade"18 which were used to destabilise wider democratic initiatives which were perceived to be inimical to US interests.
The ex-Director of the CIA, William Colby, has further conceded, when pressured, that "there is a possible CIA backing of (such) anti-Communist organisations to stop Turkey falling into the hands of communism."19 Clearance to actively proceed with covert 'psychological' warfare of this nature was provided at the highest level. Through National Security Council (NSC) Directive 4-A in 1947, the CIA was "secretively authorised ... to conduct these officially non-existent programmes and to administer them."20 As Simpson clarifies, "the NSC action removed the US Congress and public from any debate over whether to undertake psychological warfare abroad. The NSC ordered that the operations themselves be designed to be 'deniable,' meaning 'planned and executed (so) that any US government responsibility for them is not evident to unauthorised persons and that if uncovered, the US government can positively disclaim any responsibility.'"21
National Security Council Directive 10/2 (NSC 10/2), which replaced NSC-4A in 1947, similarly authorised the Office of Policy Co-ordination (OPC) - "the covert action arm of the CIA"22 - to carry out "any covert activities related to propaganda; preventative direct action including sabotage ... (and) assistance ... (in) support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the free world."23 As Frank Wisner, the head of OPC (dubbed the United States' Psychological Warfare Organisation by the NSC)24 has since conceded, these operations were "conducted in a covert or clandestine manner to the end that official US interest or responsibility" in these terrorist 'anti-Communist' actions could be "plausibly disclaimed by this government."25 The OPC's psychological warfare objectives, according to Wisner, included:
"1. Political warfare including ... support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the free world.
2. Psychological warfare including 'black' and 'grey' propaganda.26
3. Economic Warfare.
4. Guerrilla and partisan-type warfare.
5. Sabotage and counter-sabotage.
6. Other covert operations."27
It is important at this juncture to also clarify just what 'psychological warfare', as termed above, actually meant. To Christopher Simpson, who has analysed much declassified material related to the above issues:
"the primary object of US psychological operations during this period was to frustrate the ambitions of radical movements in resource rich developing countries seeking solutions to the problems of poverty, dependency and the entrenched corruption ... At heart, modern (US) psychological warfare has been a tool for managing empire, not for settling conflicts in any fundamental sense. It has operated largely as a means to ensure that indigenous democratic initiatives in the Third World and Europe do not go 'too far' from the standpoint of US security agencies ... The problem with (US) psychological warfare is ... its consistent role as an instrument for maintaining grossly abusive social structures ...
"Several points should be underlined. First, psychological warfare in the US conception has consistently made use of a wide range of violence, including guerrilla warfare, assassination, sabotage and more fundamentally, the maintenance of manifestly brutal regimes in client states abroad. Second, it has also involved a variety of propaganda or media work, ranging from overt (white) newscasting to covert (black) propaganda ... "
Re-examination of (the US) record, even as it applies to Turkey, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Philippines, Indonesia and Panama, inescapably leads Simpson in short order to an heretical conclusion:
"The role of the United States in world affairs during our lifetimes has often been rapacious, destructive, tolerant of genocide and willing to sacrifice countless people."28
In the case of Turkey, there are clear indications that the US government directly facilitated the Turkish government's genocidal programme against the Kurds through its endorsement of the CENTO pact, its provision of military equipment and its training of state backed 'anti-Kurdish' psychological warfare death squads, intelligence gathering organisations and 'commando' groups.29
Marcus Raskin, an NSC staffer, has conceded that these psychological warfare "activities around the world ... were criminal by other nations' standards as well as criminal by our own."30 To George Mc Govern, US senator between 1963-81:
"We were involved in assassinations, assassination attempts. We were operating paramilitary operations with mercenary forces hired in other people's countries with no knowledge on the part of our own Congress, our press or the American people. All of these things are alien to a system of constitutional democracy."31
Recently declassified 'Psychological Warfare' methods used by the US Army and CIA advisers during the early Cold War years again confirm that the army's operational definition of the 'psychological warfare' it was actively engaged in - be it in Turkey, Italy, Greece or Iran - clearly did include terrorist acts of "warfare" that "employs all moral and physical means, other than orthodox military operations ... Psychological Warfare," as recommended and practised, must "employ any weapon to influence the mind of the enemy. The weapons are psychological only in the effect they produce and not because of the nature of the weapons themselves. In this light, overt (white), covert (black) and grey propaganda; subversion; sabotage; special operations; guerrilla warfare; espionage; political, cultural, economic and racial pressures are all effective weapons. They are effective because they produce dissension, distrust, fear and hopelessness in the minds of the enemy."32 Psychological warfare 'special operations' were defined in the above context to additionally include "miscellaneous operations such as assassination (and) target capture."33
According to Philip Agee, a former senior CIA secret operations officer, CIA stations regularly used "offensive weapons of psychological and paramilitary operations" which involved surveillance measures and "include(d) the placing of anti-Communist propaganda in the public media, the frame-up of ... officials for police arrest, the publishing of false propaganda attributed to the revolutionary group in such a way that it will be difficult to deny and damaging as well, the organising of goon squads to beat up and intimidate ... (people) ... using ... harassment devices to break up meetings, and the calling on liaison services to take desired repressive action."34
"Within the US governmental bureaucracy itself," notes Peter Dale Scott, "intelligence agencies and special warfare elements have recurringly exploited," trained and even protected "drug traffickers and their corrupt political allies" to facilitate these types of "anti-Communist and anti-subversive operations."35
As Adams has concluded in 'Secret Armies', the US military and "the CIA ... under the single OPC umbrella ... managed to embrace every aspect of covert warfare from espionage to psychological operations and subversion."36 Widespread and chilling actions and atrocities against Kurdish communities and 'radical' human rights and 'leftist' activists in Turkey/North West Kurdistan were clearly committed as a consequence of these 'anti-communist' inspired US-CIA-NATO linked 'psychological warfare' training and operational programmes.37 To Jeffrey Bale, writing in the Berkeley Journal of Sociology and Lobster, the CIA was "instrumental in establishing the contra-guerrilla" death squads in Turkey.38 By 1969, moreover, Turkish "commandos, who had been trained by American specialists in counter-insurgency," were despatched into Kurdish regions "under the pretext of a general 'arms search'" to terrorise the population.39 These commando actions "rapidly became associated with arbitrary brutality and torture that had marked the suppression of Kurdistan four decades earlier."40
According to the journal Devrim, one commando report which focused upon its anti-Kurdish psychological warfare operations, ran along the following lines:
"Since the end of January, special military units have undertaken a land war in the (Kurdish) regions of Diyarbakir, Mardin, Siirt and Hakkari under the guise of hunting bandits. Every village is surrounded at a certain hour, its inhabitants rounded up. Troops assemble men and women separately, and demand the men to surrender their weapons. They beat those who deny possessing any or make other villagers jump on them. They strip men and women naked and violate the latter. Many have died in these operations, some have committed suicide. Naked men and women have cold water thrown over them, and they are whipped. Sometimes women are forced to tie a rope around the penis of their husband and then to lead him around the village. Women are likewise made to parade naked around the village. Troops demand villagers to provide women for their pleasure and the entire village is beaten if the request is met with refusal."41
These actions, which have mirrored those of other US inspired and trained commando groups in El Salvador, East Timor, Indonesia, Guatemala, South Vietnam and Nicaragua, followed a "general pattern ... A village is surrounded by armoured cars and helicopters move ahead; all the villagers are rounded up without any explanation, then herded into specially prepared camps. They are then called upon to surrender their weapons. Should a peasant declare that he has none, he is severely beaten and humiliated. The Turkish troops force both men and women to strip; often they rape the women. 'Suspects' are hanged by their feet from a gallows. Sometimes strings are attached to the genitals of naked men whom the women are then forced to lead through the streets in this manner. Many die under torture."42
Kendal confirms that these targeting actions continued throughout the 1970's:
"During the more or less fascist period which followed the military coup on March 12th, 1971, the commandos' activities were considerably extended and became a real 'Kurd-hunt'. The troops raked through the Kurdish provinces one by one: several thousand peasants were pursued, arrested and tortured ... in counter-insurgency centres which had been set up by Turkish officers trained by the US in Panama ... (When) Demirel (who went on to become president of Turkey) returned to power ... commando operations started up with renewed intensity in Kurdistan. In the towns, the state police and the fascist militias assassinated sixty people from March 31st, 1975 to April 10th, 1976 ... Even under the 'democratic parliamentary regime' of the late seventies, the commandos were still at work in Kurdistan. There were more than 10,000 of them patrolling the frontier province of Hakkari from October to December 1975."43
Despite being aware of such atrocities, US-NATO funding, active training and protection of racist and fascist, genocidal, anti-Kurdish psychological warfare teams and militias continued. One such militia was "the CIA/drug-linked terror gang known as the Grey Wolves," the "paramilitary arm" of the National Action Party (NAP/MHP).44 According to Berch Berberoglu, "attacks by the CIA trained and equipped death squads of the fascist NAP intensified during 1979."45 A report by the Turkish Internal Ministry acknowledges that these NAP death squads were ideologically "akin to Hitler's Nazi organisation."46 NAP supporters, for instance, were clearly encouraged in a 1977 party leaflet to act in the following fashion: "Those who destroyed (the Ottoman Empire) were Greek-Armenian-Jewish converts, Kurds, Circassians, Bosnians and Albanians. As a Turk, how much longer will you tolerate these dirty minorities? Throw out the Circassian, that he may go to Causasia, throw out the Armenian, throw out and kill the Kurd, purge from your midst the enemy of all Turkdom."47
As Kendal has clarified, "the NAP is violently and militantly anti-Kurdish ... The liquidation of the Kurds is thus an integral part of their agenda."48
Investigative research by Celik has uncovered the following details: "The intelligence services of (NATO ally) Germany and other European countries ... protected the NAP/MHP,"49 despite being fully aware of the ideological slant and character of the organisation. "This protection continues to this day. The CIA openly protected the NAP/MHP in Germany ... One of the 'protectors' was the CIA man Ruzi Nazar," who had previously "collaborated with German Nazi occupation forces in the Second World War ... NAP/MHP militants were used in hundreds of murders, became very professional, and were used by the CIA in international terrorism."50
According to Counterspy,51 the CIA - as part of its ongoing psychological warfare training strategy in Turkey - also "assisted Milli Istihbarat Teskilati (MIT)," the notorious Turkish national intelligence agency, "in 1960-69 in drafting plans for mass arrests of opposition figures similar to the pattern followed in Thailand, Indonesia and Greece. In a single night, generals ordered 4,000 professors, students, teachers and retired officers (to be) arrested. They tortured (many) ... The coup" in Turkey in 1971 "was also carried out by counter-guerrilla, the CIA, the Turkish military and Turkish military intelligence (MIT)."52 From its station in Athens, Greece, the CIA Technical Services Division (TSD) support group provided particular psychological warfare operational expertise to its staff operating in Turkey. "TSD assistance," Roubatis and Wynn conclude, "included electronic monitoring devices, various gadgets for surveillance, special weapons for clandestine operations, drugs for use in such operations, forged documents and other similar material ... The TSD activities involved aggressive operations."53
The CIA's role in assisting MIT in targeting actions against the 'Kurdish' and other 'internal communist' threats was publicly exposed in 1977 when Sabahattin Savasman, the deputy director of MIT, acknowledged that "the CIA has a delegation of at least 20 people who co-operate in the MIT with the CIA and who occupy high positions inside the MIT. They supply information, contacts and they participate in operations ... All technical equipment is supplied by the CIA. A lot of personnel was trained by the Americans in courses abroad, the buildings were constructed by the CIA, the instructors were supplied by the CIA ... The employees have been working for years as CIA agents for the benefit of the American secret service."54 He further stated that "MIT personnel have been accepting payments and taking part in operations with the CIA for years."55
Zurcher confirms that MIT's operations against 'internal threats' during this period were clearly and publicly known to be of a brutal nature: "Widespread reports of torture" of Kurds and other 'communist activists' "in so-called 'laboratories', torture chambers of the MIT," exist.56 Aldrich Ames, a former CIA officer who was stationed in Turkey, has also acknowledged that "the Turkish intelligence service (MIT) was cash-strapped, so we gave it half a million dollars worth of wiretap equipment and taught its people how to use it"57 against its 'internal threats'. MIT's own leader, General Ziya Selisik, confirmed in 1962 that its internal "communist" threats even included "all Kurds who were studying."58 It should also be noted at this point that Sait Elci, who was the leader of the underground 'Kurdistan Democratic Party - Turkey' (KDP-T) during the late 1960's, had - just before his assassination by Dr. Sait 'Siwan' Kirmizitoprak - accused the latter of acting as a Kurdish double-agent for the CIA. Elci was convinced that Dr. Sait 'Siwan' Kirmizitoprak was working to fulfil the agendas of a joint CIA-MIT operation.59
Jeffrey Bale further confirms that "there are numerous connections between the CIA and (the fascist) MHP (NAP), both in Turkey and Europe. It seems clear that the CIA and US military intelligence" - via these 'collaborative' psychological warfare operations with the virulently anti-Kurdish MHP - "made use of civilian 'idealists' (fascist hard-liners) by recruiting them into the contra-guerrilla (death squad) organisations, and former Turkoman SS man Ruzi Nazar has been identified by several investigators as the liaison between CIA personnel, including Henze (a CIA Turkey Station Chief) himself and the MHP Leadership in West Germany."60
It is also worth noting at this point that the successive CIA directors who were involved in initiating and overseeing these disquieting psychological warfare operations were well suited to their additional tasks of 'covering up' these actions from the public gaze. According to Loftus and Aarons, for example, CIA Director Allen Dulles'61 "State Department files show that he was the man (previously) assigned to cover up the Armenian massacre (genocide) ... Simpson's research62 (also) fully documents the equally repugnant cover-up engineered by Dulles and his sources during the Jewish Holocaust of World War II."63

The Pentagon and NATO'S 'stay behind' network

Under the Pentagon's confidential 1948 plan for the formation of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) styled structure, it is also instructive to note that one of the five major objectives of the emerging military alliance would be to ensure that no internal or external threat to the current "political independence (sic) or territorial integrity of Turkey"64 would be entertained. Kurdish aspirations for basic cultural and political rights - within a democratic, federal, Turkish or independent Kurdish structure - would clearly, under these criteria, have been considered psychological 'threats' which needed to be eradicated using all necessary means.
With the eventual formation of NATO in 1949 and Turkey's membership of the alliance in 1952, Turkey's military forces and several right wing fascist organisations were concretely provided with even greater covert support in their 'anti-Communist' war against Kurdish cultural and political rights and other pro-democratic 'liberal', 'leftist' and trade unionist movements. General Sir Walter Walker, former NATO Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces, Northern Europe, confirms that "Kurdish activists" were, indeed, being identified as "Marxist" communist 'internal' threats to the 'territorial integrity' of the Turkish Republic: "Turkey's Kurdish leaders have refused to be assimilated. The (Kurdish) revolt in the eastern provinces was the single most challenging security problem in the country, and in addition to that, it was notable that Kurds were playing a leading role in Marxist-Leninist groups that were ideologically ... based."65
Through the protective curtain and secretive cover of a wider 'anti-Communist' NATO 'Gladio' styled 'Operation Stay Behind' Psychological Warfare network - which was "spearheaded by the CIA ... (and) conceived by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff according to a 1976 senate report on the CIA by Frank Church which first revealed its existence"66 - a 'contra (counter) guerrilla' force called Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu (STK - 'Tactical Mobilisation Group') was funded, organised and allowed to operate from the same Ankara building that housed the US Military Aid Mission.67
According to Roth and Taylan, the training of officers assigned to this Psychological Warfare Group "begins in the US and then continues inside Turkey under the direction of CIA officers and military 'advisers'."68 By 1959, a further military accord between the US and Turkey agreed upon the 'use' of the contra-guerrillas "also in the case of an internal rebellion against the regime."69 Six years later, with the restructuring of the STK into the OHD (Ozel Harp Dairesi - Special Warfare Department),70 the contra-guerrilla psychological warfare and death squad structures were placed under the authority of the president of General Staff.71 Significant US funding of this structure, at least until 1974, was confirmed by the current Turkish Premier Bulent Ecevit, who additionally stated that "patriotic volunteers were members of the group. They were trained specially to launch a counter guerrilla operation."72
These 'operations', Turkish army spokesmen have recently conceded, were explicitly involved in anti-Kurdish actions.73 A directive by General Sabri Yirmibesoglu,74 who was a leading figure in the OHD during the 1970's, describes the types of psychological warfare activities which were being actively encouraged at the time of CIA 'grant-funding' and training: "Use 'open' as well as 'covert' activities, murder, bombing, armed robbery, torture, kidnapping; encourage incidents which invite retaliation; take hostages; use sabotage and propaganda; disseminate disinformation (and) use force as well as blackmail."75
With ex-CIA director William Colby's admission that "there is also such an organisation ('Gladio - Stay Behind') in Turkey,"76 General Dogan Beyazit (President of Turkey's General Staff) and General Kemal Yilmaz (Commander of its psychological warfare 'Special Forces'), were forced to confirm that this secretive and 'special' NATO organisation - which had been plausibly denied by Turkish officialdom and military sources until 1990 - did exist.77 Ecevit further revealed on November 13th, 1990, that "I was told that it was financed by the United States ... I was also told that the organisation had secret weapons depots. Its members were trained in special warfare techniques."78 In a more recent interview with Julie Flint, Ecevit clarified issues further: "Certain unhealthy kinds of measures were taken for internal security. Too many covert actions obviously took place. I'm afraid such events have taken place in many other NATO countries also."79
As Celik and others have ascertained, training of death squads was clearly undertaken by the OHD-CIA-NATO linked structure, and US psychological warfare and contra-guerrilla manuals were used80 - as they were in other 'Gladio - Stay Behind' structures elsewhere in Europe - after having been translated into Turkish: "The 'special war methods' which (were) taught supposedly for the prevention of a communist occupation include among others 'assassinations, bombings, armed robbery, torture, attacks, kidnap, threats, provocation, militia training, hostage taking, arson, sabotage, propaganda, disinformation, violence and extortion.'"81
Investigative research has also established that "selected elements of the(se) Turkish contra-guerrillas, together with the generals, were all trained in contra-guerrilla" and psychological warfare "schools in the USA ... During their training, the contra-guerrilla forces ... 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.82 Other places where Turkish officials are trained are the Escuela de los Americas in Panama, which is attached to the US base Southern Comfort, the Police Academy near Washington and the Schongau and Oberammergan bases in Germany."83 According to a report by Republican Peoples Party (CHP) deputy, Fikri Saglar, "the links between the illegal right wing organisations and the Turkish security should be traced back to Gladio."84
Reports in the Turkish Daily News (13 July 1994),85 furthermore, confirm that OHD linked Turkish military officials, commanders and Chiefs of Staff continue to be briefed, advised and even awarded 'Legion of Merit' medals by US Pentagon staff, high ranking members of the US armed forces and psychological warfare organisations including the US Army 'Special Operations Command'. The US Army 'Special Operations Command' houses "such specialised psychological warfare command groups as the Army Rangers, Navy Seal Teams, Special Boat Units and the 23rd Air Forces 'Special Operations Force'."86 OHD linked officials such as Karadayi (until recently, Turkey's Chief of Staff) have officially liaised with senior US counter-insurgency 'experts' and officers at Fort Bragg, Fort Knox and Goldman Army airfield.87 It has also been established that Huseyin Kocadag, Chief of the Special Forces in Hakkari (in South-East Turkey/North West Kurdistan) and Deputy Chief of Police in Diyarbakir, who has been identified as "one of the most bloody enemies of the people who organised the units of the 'head-hunters' in Kurdistan ... was trained at a CIA school in the US."88
The Human Rights Watch Arms Project has additionally exposed the way in which "US troops, aircraft and intelligence personnel have remained at their posts throughout Turkey, mingling with Turkish counterinsurgency troops and aircrews in southeastern bases such as Incirlik and Diyarbakir ... throughout Turkey's wide-ranging scorched earth campaign" against Kurdish civilian settlements and PKK hideouts/encampments.89 This campaign, indeed, has assumed genocidal proportions.90 Human Rights Watch's concern over this type of support has led to its public request to the US government to "order an inquiry into all training, joint manoeuvres, liaison and other interforce activities undertaken since 1990 by US military special operations forces with Turkish forces, with a view to identifying the Turkish units involved and the nature of US special operations training and doctrine imparted to them."91
Brigadier General Kemal Yilmaz, head of OHD, has also recently conceded that the OHD co-operates with NATO on 'technical issues' and that, at times, it has joined NATO's training programmes in Turkey and abroad.92 Its psychological warfare operations function, under the redesigned term Special Forces Command (SFC), according to Yilmaz, "is to support the operation of the Turkish Armed Forces with its 'irregular warfare activities' by preparing plans and executing the activities of war preparedness during peacetime. During wartime, SFC is responsible to establish the irregular local forces and to 'manage and control' these forces under the directives of the Chief of Staff's Office ... The units also are trained regularly by various NATO-member countries. SFC commandos are trained with the most advanced weapons of the world."93
The nature of the SFC's establishment of psychological warfare 'irregular local forces' (i.e. assassination squads) and of their 'management and control' structures were partly revealed in a 1995 report by a commission of Turkish MPs which sought to investigate more that 600 assassinations which had taken place in the south east of the country (north west Kurdistan) between 1991-1995. The report, which hard-liners sought to 'cover up', quoted a police chief in Batman as acknowledging that assassins ('contra-guerrillas') at war with the 'Marxist-Leninist' Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), had, indeed, received training from Turkish military units. There was also a clear acknowledgement that assassins and irregular forces were said to be living in security forces accommodation, from where they committed murders. "Sometimes they were arrested, but most of these incidents were covered up," it concluded.94

US-NATO 'psychological warfare' connections with anti-Kurdish agencies, 'death-teams' and fascist organisations

MIT Deputy, Sabahattin Savasman, has confirmed that the intelligence service of Turkey's NATO partner, West Germany, regularly liaised with MIT and held meetings with the organisation in Munich and Ankara to discuss and evaluate operational matters and Turkey's "internal" problems.95 NATO countries, moreover, have apparently actively engaged in the training of anti-Kurdish "death-teams",96 called 'Special Teams'. A recent Celik investigation uncovered the following:
"In 1985, a force was set up to counter Kurdish guerrilla warfare. It was known as the 'Special Team'. Even at the beginning, the unit numbered 5,000 ... For 9 months, the personnel were trained in the use of the most effective weapons and in the use of guns, torture, sabotage, plotting, interrogation, camouflage and learning about the culture and traditions of the people in the regions they were to serve in ...
"Some Special Team members were trained in other NATO countries such as Germany ... An army officer from Germany, Hauptmann Weygold, was interviewed by a Turkish newspaper called 'Tercuman' on 1st February, 1987. He informed the paper that he had 'trained 2 groups of Turkish Special Team units at St. Augustine in GSG-9 camp, near Bonn.' The German newspaper, 'Suddeutsche Zeitung', in its 31st March-1st April, 1987 edition, also stated that 3,000 Special Team members from Turkey - also known as 'Black Insects' - were trained in West Germany ... Special Teams were trained ideologically and in militaristic terms to look upon Kurdish people as enemies ... In their manifesto, Special Teams are described as 'Special Activity Teams'. They may join in with Turkish army units in operations. They also had other different assignments. An army unit might surround a group of guerrillas in a village but the Special Teams were trained to then take over the operation. It was usually their job to carry out extermination operations ... or ... mine ... or set traps on roads, interrogate, torture and lead operations in disinformation. There are hundreds of people in Kurdistan disabled as a result of the treatment and operations of the Special Teams ... Special Teams have also executed guerrillas even though it was clearly possible to arrest them. In raids, they have raped women, seized gold and money and treated people brutally."97
Randal confirms that "the so-called Special Teams, whose members often wore civilian clothes ... were feared as the cruellest of the cruel."98
Turkish state collusion with anti-Kurdish, fascist and Nazi collaborationist criminal gangs also appears to have been actively encouraged and promoted by the US and NATO 'Gladio-styled' Stay Behind Network. As Simpson's study, 'Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazi's and its Effect on the Cold War', has ascertained, events in "Greece in 1947 and Italy in 1948 also taught the CIA that it could employ former Nazi collaborators" and other fascists "on a large scale in clandestine" and psychological warfare "operations and get away with it. US national security planners appear to have concluded that extreme right wing groups that once collaborated with the Nazis should be included in US sponsored anti-Communist coalitions, for the participation of such groups became a regular feature of US covert operations in Europe in the wake of the Greek and Italian events."99
In Turkey, this resulted, in the opinion of Supreme Court Justice Emin Deger, in the endorsement of a close working collaboration between the fascist and anti-Kurdish Nationalist Action Party (NAP/MHP) armed 'commandos', or 'Bozkurts', and the Turkish state's CIA and NATO linked 'counter guerrilla' units.100 This collaboration directly led to "NAP commandos" being "trained by the CIA."101 The leader of NAP, observes Lee, was Colonel Alparslan Turkes, an "enthusiastic supporter of Hitler during World War Two."102 As Harris has ascertained, "during the Second World War, he had been leader of the Pan-Turkish movement which backed Hitler in exchange for financial support from Berlin and in the hope that a victorious Reich would allow Turkey to annex those parts of the Soviet Union inhabited by people of Turkish origin."103 It is also known that "Turkes established close ties with Nazi leaders in Germany in 1945 and ... maintained his contacts" in the post Second World War period "with the German neo-Nazi underground."104
Despite clear awareness of his pro-Nazi past and highly disturbing, fascist and racist anti-Kurdish leanings, it is instructive to note that NATO welcomed and did not seek to dispute his placement as Head of the NATO Department of the Armed Forces Headquarters in Turkey by 1960, or his role as a principal liaison officer between the Turkish General Staff and NATO in its operational activities.105 CIA inspired support for the NAP and Grey Wolves' objectionable and murderous activities has been detailed in a number of investigative reports. Brodhead, Friel and Herman, for example, draw upon a number of reports which detail the way in which "Frank Terpil, the CIA agent and international arms dealer, had supplied the NAP and the Grey Wolves with weapons and explosives in the mid 1970's"106 to proceed with their terrorist 'activities'. These activities, Kendal and Celik observe, had resulted in the murder of over 200 Kurdish and Turkish 'leftist' students by 1978, as well as a number of trade unionists, teachers and influential thinkers.107 NAP, in return for this type of 'psychological warfare support' in its anti-Kurdish and 'anti-communist' offensives, had, not unexpectedly, "pledg(ed) to abide by accords with international organisations like NATO."108
It should additionally be noted that Grey Wolves fascist paramilitary groups, which were engaged in terrorist actions against Kurdish community groups and 'Kurdish/Leftist activists', were further encouraged to forge active and collaborative operational links with the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, another CIA backed 'anti-communist/anti-radical' coalition led by former fascist World War Two collaborators from Eastern Europe.109 Colleagues of Turkes were, equally disturbingly, placed in control of a Turkish chapter of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), "an umbrella group that functioned as a cat's paw for US intelligence" and US psychological warfare operations "in Latin America, Southwest Asia and other Cold War battlegrounds."110
Celik has also ascertained that "the German writer Jurgen Roth had information obtained from the German police and claimed in his book, 'Die Verbrechen Holding', that MHP (NAP) was a branch of the Turkish (CIA-NATO) Gladio Organisation."111 In this capacity, MHP/NAP has been able to obtain support and protection from the intelligence agencies of NATO countries: "With very few exceptions, no court cases have been opened against the Party in Western European countries. It is protected in Europe, even though it is at the centre of the drugs trade. This protection is particularly strong in Germany. Right-wing German politicians, especially those in Bavaria, protect the Party. It is impossible that German intelligence should be ignorant of this, since it has been proven that they gave support to the Party in the 1970's. Turkes used Germany as his base before he died, visiting it several times a year and holding big meetings there. These meetings have never been the subject of German legal proceedings ... The German authorities ... have shown no concern over the Nationalist Action Party. It is clear that there is organised protection. The Party also finds Belgium, Holland and the UK to be countries in which it can comfortably organise."112
Recent revelations after the Susurluk car incident further point towards a 'Turkish Gladio' US-NATO connection with the late Abdullah Catli, a Grey Wolves-NAP 'anti-Kurdish', anti-Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) contra-guerrilla/OHD death squad organiser,113 who was also a convicted drug smuggler and dealer114 and colleague of the Italian Gladio and Aginter Press terrorist, Stefano Delle Chaie.115
According to an Italian investigative journalist "who had helped uncover the international Gladio network ... Catli was affiliated with the central figures of Italy's notorious (CIA-NATO linked) Gladio organisation. Catli, Agca and Celik ... an old friend of Abdullah Catli who had been implicated in several cases of political killings along with Catli and Mehmet Ali Agca, 'the man who shot the Pope', ... were operating under CIA guidance."116 An Aydinlik investigation further reveals that "French journalist Jean-Mari Stoerkel said that he had determined beyond any doubt that Abdullah Catli and Oral Celik ... had been used by Western secret services. He said that Catli and Celik had been doing business with another Turk, Bekir Celenk, who in turn was working with Henry Arsan, a man who co-operated with the CIA and with a number of secret organisations, fascist groups and terrorist gangs."117 CIA agent Frank Terpil is also reported to have publicly confirmed his involvement in helping to illegally release the extremist Grey Wolf, Agca.118
According to Herman and Brodhead, there can be no denying that "there was a close tie between the counter-guerrilla and the CIA. Deger charged further that the CIA, acting through MIT and the counter-guerrilla, promoted right-wing" psychological warfare "terrorist actions to destabilise the Turkish government and to prepare the way for the military coup of 1971. It also seems quite clear that the United States and the CIA ... assisted in the coup of that year. According to former US diplomat Robert Fresco, (the) government had simply become incapable of containing the growing anti-US radicalism in Turkey ... There are indications that the US, and particularly the CIA, exercised influence in the right-wing political sectors that included the Grey Wolves"119 in order to effect the necessary governmental changes and subsequent psychological warfare 'anti-radical', 'anti-Kurdish' targeting actions. Berberoglu has additionally drawn attention to "Turkish press reported 'rumours' of a meeting on March 11th between the (1971 coup) commanders, (US) Ambassador Handley and Richard Helms, Director of the CIA, at the US Embassy in Ankara - thus implicating the CIA directly in the March 12th (coup) intervention."120
Similar US-NATO inspired psychological warfare tactics were again utilised to effect the 1980 coup. As Harris observes, "it is important to be clear that this analysis is not just a matter of speculation, or of 'the inevitable results of mob violence.' ... It remains the case that the tactics of those who helped to justify and organise a coup d'etat ... succeeded in Turkey ... It cannot be seriously denied that in the case of Turkey, it was perceived by NATO that western interests would best be served by the overthrow of democracy."121 The US government's role in inspiring and covertly facilitating the coup has been charted by Savran, Tanor and Vassaf: "According to the ... journalist (Mehmet Ali Birand, the) US Secretary of State ... phoned (the US) President ... on the day of the coup to tell him: 'Your boys have done it. Those who were to intervene, have intervened.' One of the 'boys' was General Sahinkaya, Chief of the Air Force and one of the five members of the (junta's) National Security Council (NSC). He had a series of high-level meetings in Washington in the week preceding the military intervention."122
Saley Aay elaborates: The coup "was engineered not by fringe groups with fringe agendas but by the web of security agencies that had been woven by the CIA. Following the coup, the disappearances, murders, arrests and tortures" of Kurdish and other 'radical activists' "increased in volume and intensity. Henze's (CIA) coup - which was engineered by his good (NAP) friend Turkes - had a triple (inspired) goal:
a) To combat the growing (Kurdish) unrest in Kurdistan,
b) To combat rising Islamic fundamentalism,
c) To counter Soviet expansionism which had set a beach head in Afghanistan."123
The effects of this 'inspired' psychological warfare policy were devastating: The "group of army generals (who) carried out (the) coup d'etat ... made it clear that they intended to brook no expression of the Kurdish movement or identity whatsoever."124 In response to these and other positive assurances, the US Secretary of Defence, Weinberger, expressed his desire "to be of as much assistance as we can be" to the military junta.125 "Endorsements of the coup" were also made by NATO's overall commander, US General Bernard Rogers, who visited Ankara four times in early October, 1980, and General David Jones, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of staff, who visited Turkey in early November."126 As US-NATO psychological warfare and other 'regular' military assistance continued, no fewer than eighty one thousand Kurds were detained between September 1980 and September 1982, and two thirds of the army's total force was mobilised in the Kurdish southeast to repress Kurdish society in the region.127
"Villages and homes were raided by the army, and tens of thousands of people, primarily Leftist activists and Kurds, were arrested and interrogated, frequently under torture."128 At least 1,790 suspected members of the clandestine Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were captured, including several members of its central committee,129 and several "leading PKK members were killed in detention."130 "In the case of the PKK itself, 122 death sentences were passed and some 150 were demanded."131 Legislation, moreover, was passed which clearly sought to intensify the process of cultural genocide of Kurds.132 In response to these targeting actions, Weinberger, US Secretary of Defence, noted with satisfaction that "the Turkish military government has fulfilled our highest expectations since assuming power. We particularly admire the way law and order has been restored (sic)."133

Notes
1. Desmond Fernandes lectures in Human Geography and Tourism Studies at De Montfort University, Bedford, England. He has written extensively on issues relating to Turkish state terror, genocide, 'deep politics', tourism and the environment. He is the author of Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question (London/Bangalore, KIC/R&B Books, 1996), Tourism Boycotts of Turkey and Burma (London, KIC, 1996), The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey (Reading, Taderon, forthcoming) and editor of Ismail Besikci's International Colony (Reading, Taderon, forthcoming). Iskender Ozden is a Kurdish analyst and has translated Musa Anter's Hatiralarim (My Memoirs) and Selahattin Celik's Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi (Death Mission: The Turkish Contra-Guerrilla) into English.
2. Chomsky, N. (1991) Terrorising the Neighbourhood - American Foreign Policy in the Post Cold War Era. Stirling, AK Press, p. 32.
3. Refer, for example, to Kinnane, D. (1964) The Kurds and Kurdistan. London/New York, The Institute of Race Relations/Oxford University Press, p. 33. For a wider debate on the 'targeting' activities of the 'colonial' and 'repressive' Turkish state, refer to Besikci, International Colony, and Anter, M. (1991) Hatiralarim (My Memoirs - Volume One). Istanbul, Yon Ayincilik.
4. As cited in Cook, D. (1989) Forging the Alliance: NATO, 1945-1950. London, Secker and Warburg, p. 74. See also Truman, H. (1947) 'The Truman Doctrine', in O'Tuathail, G., Dalby, S. and Routledge, P. (eds.) (1998) The Geopolitics Reader. London/New York, Routledge, p. 59.
5. Kolko, J. and Kolko, G. (1972) The Limits of Power. New York, Harper and Row, p. 413. Refer also to Herman, E. and Brodhead, F. (1986) The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection. New York, Sheridan Square Publications, p. 61.
6. Herman and Brodhead, The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection, p. 61.
7. Lord Kinross (1954) Within the Taurus. London, John Murray, p. 101.
8. Anter, M. (1991) Hatiralarim (My Memoirs - Volume One), p. 54. Translated into English by Iskender Ozden.
9. For further details on the nature of the Kurdish genocide, refer to Fernandes, D. (1998) 'The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey, 1924-98', Armenian Forum, Vol. 1 (4), p. 56-107.
10. Excerpts from a Turkish Ministry of Interior Affairs Report, dated 31st July, 1959, as quoted in Meiselas, S. (1997) Kurdistan: In The Shadow of History. New York, Random House, p. 228.
11. Kendal (1980) 'Kurdistan in Turkey', in Chaliand, G. (ed) People Without A Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan. London, Zed, p. 73. Kendal notes, for instance, that "a US officer headed its military committee," p. 73. Miles Copeland, a CIA officer and US Vice Consul in Syria in 1949, also notes in his book, The Game Of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, p. 180), that "the Egyptians and everyone else knew very well that the (Baghdad) Pact" - later to evolve into the CENTO pact - "was (US) Secretary Dulles' brainchild."
12. Ghassemlou (1965) Kurdistan and the Kurds. London, Collet's, p. 251. See also Kendal, Kurdistan in Turkey, p. 73 and Ghassemlou, Kurdistan and the Kurds, p. 228, 251.
13. Randal, J. (1999) After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? Boulder, Westview, p. 269. Cihat Baban, a journalist for 'Ulus' newspaper, and an MP for the Peoples Republic Party (CHP) of Turkey, has also confirmed the anti-Kurdish basis of CENTO's strategy - See Anter, Hatiralarim, p. 193. Translated into English by Iskender Ozden.
14. Besikci, I. (forthcoming) The International Colony (English translation from the original). Reading, Taderon Press.
15. Besikci, I. (forthcoming) The International Colony (English translation from the original). Reading, Taderon Press.
16. Anter, Hatiralarim, p. 184. Translated into English by Iskender Ozden. Anter notes, however, that the Turkish state chose to "turn down this suggestion" as it would indirectly have the negative effect of promoting and legitimising the Kurdish language (p. 184) - a process which military and 'Kemalist' political circles found unacceptable.
17. Simpson, C. (1988) Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and its Effects on the Cold War. London, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, p. 91.
18. Simpson, Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and its Effects on the Cold War, p. 94.
19. Celik, S. (1995) Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi (Death Mission: The Turkish Contra-Guerrilla). Cologne, Ulkem Press, p.67. Translated into English by Iskender Ozden.
20. Simpson, C. (1994) The Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare. Oxford, OUP, p. 39.
21. Simpson, The Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, p. 39.
22. Adams, J. (1988) Secret Armies: The Full Story of the SAS, Delta Force and Spetsnaz. London, Pan, p. 28.
23. Paddock, A. (1982) US Army Special Warfare. Washington DC, National Defence University Press, p. 73, also as cited in Adams, Secret Armies: The Full Story of the SAS, Delta Force and Spetsnaz, p. 28-29.
24. Simpson, The Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, p. 60.
25. Adams, Secret Armies: The Full Story of the SAS, Delta Force and Spetsnaz, p. 29.
26. According to Agee, "white propaganda is that which is openly acknowledged as coming from the US government, e.g. from the US Information Agency (USIA); grey propaganda is ostensibly attributed to people or organisations who do not acknowledge the US government as the source of their material and who produce the material as if it were their own; black propaganda is unattributed material, or it is attributed to a non-existent source, or it is false material attributed to a real source." - Agee, P. (1975) Inside the Company: CIA Diary. Harmondsworth, Penguin, p. 70.
27. As cited in Adams, Secret Armies: The Full Story of the SAS, Delta Force and Spetsnaz, p. 29-30.
28. Simpson, The Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, p. 7, 8, 13, 116, 117.
29. For a detailed insight into the nature of the Kurdish genocide in Turkey, refer to Fernandes, D. (1999) 'The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey, 1924-98', Armenian Forum, Vol. 1(4), p. 56-107.
30. As quoted in Lewis Lapham's investigative documentary American Power: Episode 4 - Omnipotence, screened on Discovery Channel, 1999.
31. As quoted in Lewis Lapham's investigative documentary American Power: Episode 4 - Omnipotence, screened on Discovery Channel, 1999. For a further account of the use by the CIA of mercenary forces and criminal syndicates/masonic lodges (such as Aginter Press, World Service, Paladin Group, P-2, the Organisation Armee contre le Communisme International) throughout Europe, refer to Christie, S. (1984) Stefano Delle Chaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist. London, Anarchy Magazine/Refract Publications.
32. As cited in Simpson, The Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, p. 12. Simpson interestingly notes that the army's definition of 'psychological warfare' - quoted here - "was classified as top secret at the time it was promulgated (early 1948) and remained officially secret until (as late as) the early 1980's," p. 12.
33. See Simpson, The Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, p. 12.
34. Agee, P. (1975) Inside the Company: CIA Diary. Harmondsworth, Penguin, p. 61.
35. Scott, P.D. (2000) 'Washington and the Politics of Drugs', Variant, 2 (11), p. 3.
36. Adams, Secret Armies: The Full Story of the SAS, Delta Force and Spetsnaz, p. 30.
37. See Celik's Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra Guerrilla Force (http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.htm); Deger, E. (1978) CIA, Kontr-Gerilla ve Turkiye. Ankara, Calgar; Roth, J. and Taylan (1981) Die Turkei: Republic unter Wolfen. Bornheim, Lamuv; Genc, S. (1975) Bicagin Sirtindali Turkiye: CIA/MIT/Kontr-Gerilla. Istanbul, Savelli.
38. As quoted in Lobster - The Journal of Parapolitics, Issue 18, 1989.
39. See Kendal (1993) 'Kurdistan in Turkey', in Chaliand, G. (ed) A People Without a Country: Kurds and Kurdistan. London, Zed, p. 78.
40. Mc Dowall, D. (1996) A Modern History of the Kurds. London, I.B. Tauris, p. 409.
41. Devrim, no. 36 (23rd June, 1970), and quoted in Mc Dowall, A Modern History of the Kurds, p. 409.
42. Kendal, 'Kurdistan in Turkey', p. 78.
43. Kendal, 'Kurdistan in Turkey', p. 78.
44. Burghardt, T. (1998) 'Editor's Introduction', Antifa Info-Bulletin, Special Edition, May 12, 1998, p.1. For a detailed description of the drug linked terrorist activities of the Grey Wolves and NAP, refer to Celik, S. (ed.) (written in 1998) Gangster State: The Susurluk Crash and the Entanglement of the State, Underworld and Counter-Guerrillas in Turkey (The English Translation, as yet unpublished).
45. Berberoglu, B. (1982) Turkey in Crisis. London, Zed, p. 119.
46. Poulton, H. (1997) Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic. London, Hurst and Company, p. 161.
47. As quoted in Poulton, Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic, p. 153.
48. Kendal, 'Kurdistan in Turkey', p. 96.
49. Celik, Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi, p. 69 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
50. Celik, Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi, p. 69 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
51. Counterspy, Summer 1980, p. 14, as cited in the 'CIABASE files on Death Squads supported by the CIA' as compiled by Ralph McGehee, 10/11/95.
52. Counterspy, Summer 1980, p.14, and as cited by Ralph McGehee, 'CIABASE files on Death Squads supported by the CIA', 10/11/95.
53. Roubatis, Y. and Wynn, K. (1978) 'CIA Operations in Greece', in Agee, P. and Wolf, L. (eds) Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe. London, Zed, p. 149.
54. As quoted in Devrimci Sol (1997) 'The Name of the War Against the People: Contra-Guerrillas,' Devrimci Sol Revolutionary Left, January 1997, p. 21.
55. Celik, Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi, p. 168 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
56. Zurcher (1997) Turkey: A Modern History. London/New York, IB Tauris, p. 272.
57. As quoted by Earley, P. (1997) Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames. London, Hodder and Stoughton, p. 47.
58. Anter notes, for instance, that "the leader of MIT, General Ziya Selisik, sent a letter ... in 1962 ... to Yon ('The Way') magazine to be published as a way of warning to 'left-wing groups' to rethink. He pointed out that all Kurds who were studying were viewed by the state as communists!" - See Anter, Hatiralarim, p. 217 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
59. It should be noted here, however, that doubts have been expressed in some quarters concerning the accuracy of Elci's claims. For a detailed discussion of this affair, refer to Anter, Hatiralarim, p. 210-216 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
60. As cited in Fernandes, D. (1996) Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours:Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question. London, KIC, p. 69.
61. Who was CIA director between 1953 and 1961.
62. Simpson, C. (1993) The Splendid Blond Beast: Money, Law and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. New York, Grove Press.
63. Loftus, J. and Aarons, M. (1997) The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People. New York, St. Martin's Press/Griffin edition, p. 221.
64. Cook, Forging the Alliance: NATO, 1945-1950, p. 131.
65. Walker, W. (1982) The Next Domino? London, Corgi, p. 143, 146.
66. Pallister, D. (1990) The Guardian, 5th December, and as cited in Statewatch's (undated) 'Operation Gladio' file, p. 11.
67. As revealed to Former Prime Minister Ecevit and as cited in the February 1993 edition of Info Turk and Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 69. Refer also to Celik's Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force (http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.htm); Roth, J. and Taylan, K. (1981); Counterspy Vol. VI, No 2, February-April 1982, p. 23-25 and Herman and Brodhead's The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection, p. 61.
68. Roth, J. and Taylan, K. (1981) Die Turkei: Republik Unter Wolfen/Turkey: A Republic Ruled By Wolves. Bornheim, Lamur Verlag, as quoted in Herman, The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection, p. 61.
69. Hurriyet, 26 November 1992, and as cited in Celik, Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force (http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.htm).
70. In effect a parallel structure to the CIA-NATO inspired 'Gladio' paramilitary organisation in Italy, 'Schwert' ('Sword') in Austria, 'SDR-8' in Belgium, 'Glaive' in France, 'Operation Sheepskin' in Greece, 'Sveaborg' in Sweden, 'P-26' in Switzerland and others in Denmark, Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK.
71. Celik, Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force (http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.htm).
72. Associated Press release, 14 November, 1990 and as cited in Statewatch's (undated) Operation Gladio file.
73. See Lee, M.A. (1997) 'On the Trail of Turkey's Terrorist Grey Wolves', Antifa Info-Bulletin, 10 July, 1997 (http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/kurd-1/1997/0006.html).
74. Directive ST 31-15 - 'Action Against Irregular Forces' - See Celik, Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi, p. 77 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
75. See Celik, Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi, p. 77 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
76. See Celik, Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force (http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.htm).
77. See Celik, Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force (http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.htm).
78. As cited in Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 69.
79. Flint, J. (1997) Correspondent: In the Interests of the State. London, BBC 2.
80. See Celik, Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi, p. 76 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
81. Directive ST 31/15 for Operations Against Irregular Forces, as cited in Celik, Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force (http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.htm).
82. Franco Salinas, 'State of Emergency' (p82-88), as cited in Celik, Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force (http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.htm).
83. Celik, Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force (http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/51/017.htm).
84. Kurku, E. (1997) 'Turkey: Trapped in a Web of Covert Killers', Antifa Info-Bulletin, 7 August 1997.
85. As cited/quoted in Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 69.
86. As cited/quoted in Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 69.
87. As cited/quoted in Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 69.
88. Devrimci Sol (1997) 'Who Are Guilty?', Devrimci Sol, January 1997, p. 31.
89. Human Rights Watch Arms Project (1995) Weapons Transfers and Violations of the Laws of War in Turkey. New York, Human Rights Watch, p. 4.
90. See Fernandes, D. (1999) 'The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey, 1924-98', Armenian Forum, Vol. 1 (4).
91. Human Rights Watch Arms Project, Weapons Transfers and Violations of the Laws of War in Turkey, p. 17.
92. See Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 69.
93. As cited in Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 69.
94. As cited in Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours; Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 71.
95. See Celik, Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi, p. 168-169 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
96. A term used by Celik in Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi, p. 87 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
97. See Celik, Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi, p. 87-88 (As translated into English by Iskender Ozden).
98. Randal, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters with Kurdistan, p. 263.
99. Simpson, Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and its Effects on the Cold War, p. 62. For further details on this matter, refer to Christie's book, Stefano Delle Shaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist.
100. See Herman and Brodhead, The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection, p. 62; Berberoglu, Turkey in Crisis, p. 126 and Benhabib, S. (1979) 'Right Wing Groups Behind Political Violence in Turkey', MERIP Reports, Number 77, May 1977, p. 17.
101. Berberoglu, Turkey in Crisis, p. 126.
102. Lee, M. A. (1997) 'On the Trail of Turkey's Killers' (http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/kurd-1/1997.Jun/0006.html).
103. Harris (1990), as quoted in Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 69.
104. Berberoglu, Turkey in Crisis, p. 125.
105. Taken from a Harris (1990) quote, excerpted from Fernandes, Beyond the Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 69.
106. Brodhead, F., Friel, H. and Herman, E. (1985) 'Darkness in Rome: the "Bulgarian Connection" Revisited', Covert Action Quarterly, No. 23, Spring 1995, p. 28.
107. Kendal, 'Kurdistan in Turkey', p. 96, and Celik, Gangster State: The Susurluk Crash and the Entanglement of the State, Underworld and Counter-Guerrillas in Turkey, Chapter 7 (The English Translation, as yet unpublished).
108. Poulton (1997) Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic, p. 151.
109. See Clark, W (1999) 'Byzantine Politics: The Abduction and Trial of Abdullah Ocalan', Variant Supplement, Autumn 1999, p. 3 (quoting from an excerpt from Covert Action Quarterly, No. 61).
110. Covert Action (No. 61), as quoted by Clark, W (1999) 'Byzantine Politics: The Abduction and Trial of Abdullah Ocalan,' p. 3.
111. Celik (1995) Olum Makinasi: Turk Kontr-Gerillasi (Death Mission: The Turkish Contra-Guerrilla), p. 70, as translated into English by Iskender Ozden.
112. Celik, Gangster State: The Susurluk Crash and the Entanglement of the State, Underworld and Counter-Guerrillas in Turkey, Chapter 7 (The English Translation, as yet unpublished).
113. Devrimci Sol (1997) 'Who Are Guilty?', Devrimci Sol, January 1997, p. 30.
114. Devrimci Sol, 'Catli Was in Cyprus with Topal: Radikal - Press Clippings from Turkey on the Susurluk Scandal', Devrimci Sol, January 1997, p. 29. See also Devrimci Sol (1997) 'Who Are Guilty?,' Devrimci Sol, January 1997, p. 30.
115. See Aktuel magazine, no. 282, 1996, 'Gladio took Abdullah Catli to USA.'
116. Devrimci Sol, 'Agca and Celik in Danger: Sabah - Press Clippings from Turkey on the Susurluk Scandal', Devrimci Sol, January 1997, p. 23.
117. Devrimci Sol, 'The Catli-CIA Link: Aydinlik - Press Clippings from Turkey on the Susurluk Scandal,' Devrimci Sol, January 1997, p. 24.
118. See Aktuel magazine, no. 282, 1996, 'Gladio took Abdullah Catli to USA.'
119. Herman and Brodhead, The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection, p. 62.
120. Berberoglu, Turkey in Crisis, p. 123.
121. Harriss (1990), as cited in Fernandes, The Paradise of Infinite Colours: Turkish State Terror, Tourism and the Kurdish Question, p. 72. See also Herman, E. (1982) The Real Terror Network: Terrorism in Fact and Propaganda. Boston, South End Press, p. 209.
122. Savran, S., Tanor, B. and Vassaf, G. (1987) Out of Order: Turkish Universities and Totalitarianism. London, World University Service, p. 8. Savran, Tanor and Vassaf cite the Birand source as: Birand, M. A. (1984) 12 Eylul Saat 04.00. Istanbul, Karacan Yayinlari, p. 286-287.
123. Aay, S. (1999) Paul Henze: Scholar or Ethiopian Propagandist? (http://www.primenet.com/~ephrem2/articles/henze_sal.html).
124. Mc Dowall, D. (1992) The Kurds: A Nation Denied. London, Minority Rights Publications, p. 44.
125. Herman, E. (1982) The Real Terror Network: Terrorism in Fact and Propaganda. Boston, South End Press, p. 209.
126. Berberoglu, Turkey in Crisis, p. 128.
127. Mc Dowall, A Modern History of the Kurds, p. 414.
128. Mc Dowall, The Kurds: A Nation Denied, p. 44.
129. Mc Dowall, A Modern History of the Kurds, p. 414.
130. Rayne, T. (1992) 'Introduction' to We Put Our Trust In The Kurdish People: Abdullah Ocalan, General Secretary, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) - Interviews And Speeches. London, KSC-KIC Publications, p. 2.
131. KSC-KIC (1992) 'Biographical Notes' in We Put Our Trust In The Kurdish People: Abdullah Ocalan, General Secretary, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) - Interviews And Speeches. London, KSC-KIC Publications, p. 6.
132. For a detailed insight into the matter, see Fernandes, 'The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey, 1924-98', p. 93.
133. Wake Up (1996) 'British Intelligence and Covert Action: How the British State Supports International Terrorism', Wake Up, Number 11, p. 48.