Abdullah Çatlı

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Abdullah Çatlı (1956—November 3, 1996) was a Turkish ultra-nationalist activist of the "Grey Wolves", a movement of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi-MHP).^[1]

1 Grey Wolves member
2 1996 Car accident in Susurluk
3 Abdullah Çatlı in fiction
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Grey Wolves member

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 "dark" operations, and was allegedly instructed by Turkish officials to kill people suspected of being members of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Çatlı is claimed to be responsible, along with Haluk Kırcı, of the October 9, 1978 Bahçelievler Massacre during which seven university students, members of the Turkish Workers' Party, were murdered.^[2] He is further said to have helped helped Mehmet Ali Ağca murder the left-wing newspaper editor Abdi İpekçi on January 1, 1979, in Istanbul ^[3], and helped Ağca escape from an Istanbul military prison, in 1979.^[2]

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". ^[3]. In 1998 the magazine Monde diplomatique alleged that Abdullah Çatlı had organized the assassination attempt "in exchange for the sum of 3 million German mark" for the Gray Wolves.^[4] The allegation has not been verified as of 2007. In 1985 in Rome, Catli declared to a judge "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". ^[1]

Also according to Monde diplomatique, Çatlı was "seen in company of Stefano Delle Chiaie", an Italian neofascist who worked for Gladio, a NATO stay-behind secret paramilitary organization, while "touring Latin America, and on a visit to Miami in September 1982". 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. ^[4]

According to colonel Alparslan Türkeş, the founder of the Gray Wolves, "Catli has cooperated in the frame of a secret service working for the good of the state".^[1]

[edit] 1996 Car accident in Susurluk

Further information: Susurluk scandal

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 (a 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, was the sole person to survive the crash. His militia, funded by the Turkish state, was active against the PKK. The Susurluk scandal exposed relations between the Grey Wolves and the Deep State.

At the time of his death, Çatlı was a convicted fugitive, who had been wanted for drug trafficking and murder. Evidence seized at the site of the crash 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. The 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.^{[citation needed]}