SPECIAL REPORT - The Dark Turkish State - And Why It Set Greece Ablaze

infognomonpolitics

The recent statements by former Turkish premier Mesut Yilmaz, who told  the “Birgun” daily in Turkey that during the leadership of his arch rival Tansu Ciller, (from 1995 to 1998) secret service agents from his country were responsible for the fires that literally wiped out many of Greece's forests certainly caused a raucus in Greece, but it was an issue that was known in diplomatic circles for a very long time. The news shocked the international community, triggering strong reactions, while in Greece it angered many citizens (especially those who lost their homes and their loved ones). At the same time an unprecedented amount of information began to surface about this "grey period" in recent Greek history and many stories about espionage and a secret wars between the two countries were published that if examined carefully create the perfect Hollywood movie.

Hellasfrappe was following the flood of information and recently watched a televised news show which hosted author and publisher Savas Kalenteridis. The latter is probably the most knowledgeable man on this subject and we were shocked and horrified when he bluntly said that this operation was executed because of the Greek stance of the Kurdish issue. 

Who is Kalenteridis. Ok... in February 1999, Savas Kalenteridis had the rank of colonel and was part of the Greek secret services. His mission, claims a separate report on the filologos10 blog was to collect and process information that concerned Turkey. He was also the man that accompanied Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdish liberation movement PKK, from Greece to Kenya. Ocalan was later arrested and when the case ended, Kalenteridis resigned from the Hellenic Armed Forces, as well as from the secret services. 

As an expert in his field, Kalenteridis recently published a book that analyzes the Turkish secret services (MIT). The book is described as being the only book of its sort globally. 

Kalenteridis gave the most simplistic and realistic reasons why the fires were set and who was responsible for them. According to him, in the mid 90s the Turkish forces were battling with Kurdish rebels in what was known then as the so-called Turkish Kurdistan (now known as northern Kurdistan) and because it was difficult for the Turkish army to defeat the Kurdish rebels, they set fire to thousands of villages and communities in this area forcing millions of people to flee the region for safety. 

The rebels obviously put up a strong fight, and when the Turkish army could not face off with them, they once again went on a rampage setting fires to many forests in the framework of smoking out the rebels who had sought refuge there. In retaliation the Kurdish rebels began to set fire to forests in the Western part of Turkey that were close to military compounds hurting top security facilities. 

Turkey did not take this very well and concluded that these fires were set by Greek officials (never once considering that it could be another force) and thus a secret operation was set up that later set ablaze several islands in the Eastern Aegean as well as in Athens, and a little later on in Thessaloniki and destroying thousands upon thousands of acres of Greek forestland. 

He says the fires had two goals. The first was to make the relevant islands in the Aegean barren of forestland for operational purposes (forests are an obstacle for Turkish designs on these islands). The second aim was to make them "unattractive" to tourists so that tourists can rather choose the coastal resorts in Turkey instead. (It must be noted that during the 90s Turkey was just beginning to develop its tourism industry).

But to better understand who and what sort of actions were involved here and what sort of groups took part in these operations, you have to first understand Turkey, claims Kalenteridis. He claims that the whole operation was under the absolute control of the Turkish State with the written approval of the National Security Council (EPC) (whether this involved the smuggling of narcotics, illegal weapons, or even human trafficking). These mechanisms, involving notorious members of the Turkish mafia and the radical group "Grey Wolves", as will be discussed below, were used by the Turkish government to burn forests in the Eastern Aegean, Athens and Thessaloniki as well as for intimidating and even assassinating thousands of prominent Kurdish personalities.

(Please watch the videos to get a better understanding of this case, after you read the article. Of special interest is what is said in videos 1, 2 and 6)

WHY YILMAZ DECIDED TO SPILL THE BEANS

Afchan Tsarkin is one of the bodyguards of MP Sedat Entip Boutzak, a special unit of the Turkish police, who according to his own confession participated in hundreds of killings of ordinary Kurdish citizens, and was accused of being involved in the assassination of Omer Lioutfou Topal, King of Casino Turkey.

In early 2011, Tsarkin, began to speak out about the operations of the Turkish secret services which he said murdered ordinary people and celebrities from the Kurdish national liberation movement. As a result, a prosecutor ordered the arrest of several of his colleagues, and has opened a new round of investigations into this case as well as the length of involvement of the Turkish state.

Within these discussions, a journalist by the name of Birgkioun Enver Afsever, interviewed Yilmaz, who attempted to present himself as an opponent of such methods and practices, and the issue of the fires were revealed, as was the cover-up that followed. 

Yilmaz probably inadvertently made ​​the reference to the burning of Greece's forests and following the reaction his statements made in Athens he was forced to "reword" his initial statement.

This of course does not erase how and why the fires occurred. But to understand this, and the mechanisms used to execute these fires you have to first come to grips with how the mafia and the Turkish secret services worked back then. We will refer to some indicative cases, as noted by Kalenteridis, where the players have participated in various missions that were assigned to them by the Turkish state, including burning Greek forests, as they themselves admit.

MEHMET AGAR AND THE GREEN PASSPORTS

Mehmet Agar, was General Manager of Security in Turkey and later became the Minister of Interior and Minister of Justice. He was Tansu Ciller's right hand man as well as served on the side of her husband  Ozer Ciller (who coordinated the activities of all the para-state mechanisms in Turkey). As General Director of Security in Turkey, and as Minister of Interior, Agar allocated more than 200 permits for firearms to many members of the Turkish mafia, as well as issued a number of green passports to senior officials. He also gave them badges to help them across Turkish territory, while passports allowed them to get visas easily and not become a suspect of the countries they visited. The same tactic was adopted by MIT and the General Staff for their operations abroad. These very same documents were found on the Turkish agents who planted bombs and eventually set Greece ablaze. 

THE CASE OF YASAR OZ 

The case of Yasar Oz is indicative of the methods used by the Turkish state to recruit and assign tasks to members of the Mafia. In a separate report on infognomonpolitics Kalenteridis tells us that he is an executive of the notorious Grey Wolves Mafia group used by the Turkish state for the movement and trade of narcotics to many European countries. Yasar Oz, was one of the henchmen of Mehmet Agar, and although he was on Turkey's most wanted list for drug trafficking, he suspiciously had official state documents, a gun license as well as a green passport.
He was arrested in January 1994 by Costantinopole authorities for carrying a firearm and for the passport that was issued in his name as well as for being associated with the most notorious drug merchant and official partner of MIT, Tariq Oumit. 

When Mehmet Agar found out about Yasar Oz's arrest he personally telephoned police deputy Mesta Sener, and asked that Oz be released immediately because he had to execute important missions that were entrusted to him by the state.

One of the missions, says Kalenteridis was to organize the assassination of a dissident. In his testimony, Tzouneit Signteniz (a member of the terrorist Turkish Revenge Brigades who was later arrested) said that he gave Yasar Oz a passport and organized the attempted murder of Turkish Alevi political refugee Nazif Bostantzi in London, in December 1994.
 Yasar Oz was also assigned other tasks. On December 6, 1995, while trying to sell a large quantity of heroin to buyers, who were members of the US Anti Narcotics Squad (DEA), he escaped arrest while his colleagues Erdal Aydın, Mehmet Ercengiz and Metin Dokur were arrested. According to Kalenteridis, Yasar Oz was released after the Turkish secret services intervened and came into agreement with US officials.

After the accident in Susurluk on November 9, 1996 which killed Abdullah Tsatli (a relative by marriage to Oz and team leader of the mafia, who had an office in the building of the National Assembly of Turkey (!) ) a prosecutor finally issued a warrant for his arrest "for possession of weapons and explosives" and for "drug trafficking", etc.
Eventually Yasar Oz voluntarily surrendered on March 8, 1997. 

Just before he gave himself in, he showed reporters on live television his firearms license that was signed by Interior Minister Mehmet Agar, a valid identification with photograph in the name Turan Altınörs, a valid driving license in the name Cenap Aksan and green passport that was issued in his name. And it was here that he said the almighty line that sent the whole case ablaze... "When we were sent to burn Greek forests we were useful, now we have to go jail."

BOMBS IN RHODES AND ATHENS

Surprisingly through Kalenteridis we also discovered that these operations in Greece were not only confined to setting fires, these mobsters apparently also executed other missions as well, such as setting off a bomb explosion on the island of Rhodes and in Athens at a busy railway station stop. 

The "groups", he says, were used in Greece to hurt Armenian and Kurdish targets in Europe and since Ankara used these men in other "secret operations" they had an immunity in Turkey that permitted them to do other things such as develop their narcotics smuggling business. At some point though, he notes, Turkish officials lost their control over them and therefore began making massive arrests. 

ASSASSINATIONS

Turning to other types of operations, Kalenteridis claims that a personality by the name of Gelsint (phonetic spelling) who was used by Turkish officials for hundreds of assassinations of prominent Kurdish personalities, entered Greece with his associates and decended to Athens to assassinate navy official Mr. Naxarchi (who was involved with the Kurdish rebel movement). Unfortunately (or rather fortunately) these men were stopped by the Greek traffic police, and for reasons which are still unknown Greek authorities allowed them to return to Turkey even though they discovered illegal weapons and other such devices in their poccession.

Other assassinations linked to these "operational organs" in Greece, notes Kalenteridis are the case of the head of Asala (the Secret Armenian Liberation Army)  Agkop Agkopian (phonetic spelling) who was murdered in Athens in 1988. And there is also the case of Theofylos Georgiadis, says Kalenteridis who was murdered by members of the Cypriot mafia who sold their souls to these very same Turkish mobsters for a few kilos of heroin. 

THE CASE OF KAHRAMAN
A long-standing columnist for the Hurriyet and Milliet newspapers, a beloved personality of Turkey's "para-state" and protige of Tsolasan Emin (Emin Colasan), said in his book "So I did journalism: What I experienced," (published in 2005 by Doga version under "Kahraman) mentioned a discussion he had held with an agent of MIT, who was codenamed Sabah Ketene.
After talking about his participation in the struggle against the Kurdish National Liberation Movement and the group that placed bombs in Erbul (the capital of the autonomous state of Soth Kurdistan or northern Iraq) Ketene, also spoke about his participation in terrorist activities organized and performed by MIT in Greece

Emin says in his book that: "After we sent the materials separately, we moved to this country (Greece). We put some bombs in tourist areas, which are emptied of tourists immediately after the explosions. In the capital, a bomb exploded in front of the subway and people panicked. Then, if you noticed, in this country many fires broke out." The writer continued by saying "what a shame to our beautiful forests. But with all this, our neighbor, which sabotages us will find our that the price for sowing what it reaps is expensive."
Although recruited and trained by MIT, Ketene, who was a Turkmen from Southern Kurdistan, was killed by Kurds in Kirkuk in 2006! 

ASYMETRIC THREATS

Was Mr. Vyron Polydoras right when in 2007 he spoke of "asymmetric threats"? Kalenteridis says that this term is not without merits. "In 2007, when there were ongoing fires in the Peloponnese and Evia, some tried to burn Hymettus." He says that a barrage of parallel and misleading phone calls were made to the fire department and every time forces arrived on the scene, they were shocked and horrified to discover that the fires were non-existent. This created a havoc in the fire department's attempt to battle the flames that summer since forces were disbursed all over Greece and were not centered in one area together. The calls were not traced but Kalenteridis says that officials believe that there was a center which directed these actions with the expertise not to leave any traces.  

Therefore, he says, it was an organized attack/plan. In his expert opinion, he says the plan was developed and implemented by an enemy of the state, or by a foreign country. 

CONCLUSION

We propose that you watch all six videos. We guarantee you that you will be numb with awe...as we are. In a democratic society and with everything that Kalenteridis as well as all these other men have described in the videos, issues such as these would be handled politically (at the highest level), but in Greece there were just several statements made and aside from the blogs the mainstream media more or less buried the subject right away. 

No further words are necessary.... we here at hellasfrappe are still in shock.

References

Defencenet

Filologos10

infognomonpolitics