Abdullah Çatlı

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Abdullah Çatlı (1956—November 3, 1996) was a Turkish nationalist and neofascist activist, who became in 1978 the second responsible, after colonel Alparslan Türkes, of the "Grey Wolves", a movement of the Turkish "Nationalist Movement Party" [1]. Member of Gladio "stay-behind" NATO clandestine network, he was instrumental in destroying the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), and worked with the cooperation of the Turkish state and Gladio, NATO's paramilitary anticommunist organization during the Cold War. Despite his criminal activities he is highly respected among the Turkish ultranationalists, who generally refer to him as "Reis"(chief).

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[edit] Grey Wolves member and Gladio operative

Growing up in Nevşehir, a small province in Middle Anatolia, Çatlı had been familiar with the views of the far right "Nationalist Movement Party" (MHP), and the Turkish ultranationalists. He was involved in many kinds of "dark" operations, and was allegedly instructed by Turkish officials to kill people suspected of being members of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

According to reporter Lucy Komisar, he helped Mehmet Ali Ağca murder the left-wing newspaper editor Abdi İpekçi on January 1, 1979, in Istanbul. Caught due to an informant, Mehmet Ali Ağca was then sentenced to life in prison. He soon escaped, with the help of Grey Wolves, and fled to Bulgaria. According to Lucy Komisar, Abdullah Çatlı "reportedly helped organize Agca's escape from an Istanbul military prison, and some have suggested Catli was even involved in the {1981} Pope's assassination attempt", for which Mehmet Ali Ağca served 20 years of prison in Italy, before being pardoned by the Italian president [2]. Indeed, the Monde diplomatique alleged that Abdullah Çatlı had organized the assassination attempt "in exchange for the sum of 3 million German mark" for the Grey Wolves [3]. In Rome, Catli declared to the judge in 1985 "that he had been contacted by the BND, the German intelligence agency, which would have promised him a nice sum of money if he implicated the Russian and Bulgarian services in the assassination attempt against the Pope". According to colonel Alparslan Türkes, the founder of the Grey Wolves, "Catli has cooperated in the frame of a secret service working for the good of the state" [1].

Çatlı was "seen in company of Stefano Delle Chiaie", an Italian neofascist, who worked for Gladio "stay-behind" NATO secret paramilitary organizations, according to the same sources, "while touring Latin America and on a visit to Miami in September 1982" (emphasis added) [3]. He then went to France, where, under the alias of Hasan Kurtoglu, he planned a series of attacks on Armenian interests and on the ASALA, including the blowing up of the Armenian monument at Alfortville on May 3, 1984 and the attempted murder of activist Ara Toronian.

[edit] 1996 Car accident

Çatlı died in a car accident on November 3, 1996 in Susurluk, a town in the province of Balıkesir. With him in the car were Hüseyin Kocadağ (a famous police officer), Sedat Bucak (Member of Parliament of the True Path Party for Şanlıurfa province), and Gonca Us (Abdullah Çatlı's girlfriend, a Turkish beauty queen turned mafia hit-woman). Sedat Bucak, a Kurdish warlord and village guards leader, escaped alive from the crash. His militia, funded by the Turkish state, was active against the PKK.

At the time of his death, Çatlı was a convicted fugitive, who had been wanted for drug trafficking and murder. Evidence seized at the crash site indicated that he had been carrying:

  • a special diplomatic credentials, given by the Turkish authorities;
  • a government-approved weapons permit;
  • six ID cards, each with a different name; Lucy Komisar writes that "At the scene of the Mercedes-Benz crash, Turkish investigators found Catli with a fake passport. "The person on this photo, Mehmet Özbay, serves as a specialist for the police directorate and he is allowed to carry guns." Mehmet Özbay was an alias -- the very same alias that Mehmet Ali Agca had on his own passport. "
  • several handguns, and silencers; and
  • a cache of narcotics.
  • thousands US dollars.

When it became obvious that Catli was a police collaborator, the Turkish Interior Minister resigned. Several high-ranking law enforcement officers, including Istanbul's police chief, were suspended. And the red-hot scandal eventually endangered the careers of other senior government officials.

Catli also maintained good ties with the Turkish mafia, with whom he collaborated in heroin trade.

[edit] Abdullah Çatlı in fiction

  • Bruce Sterling's 2000 novel Zeitgeist includes a major character ("Mehmet Ozbey") based on Çatlı.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b (French) "Les liaisons dangereuses de la police turque", in Le Monde diplomatique, March 1997
  2. ^ Lucy Komisar is an investigative journalist who wrote on Gladio and Clearstream scandal.
  3. ^ a b "Turkey's pivotal role in the international drug trade (in English)", Le Monde diplomatique, July 1998.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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