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In Turkey, the stay-behind army was known as "Counter-Guerrilla". Related to the Millî ?stihbarat Te?kilât? (MIT), the Turkish intelligence agency, it engaged in domestic terror, supporting, as in Italy, a strategy of tension, which led to two military coup d'état in which it was directly involved. In 1971, after a military coup d'état carried on March 12, the stay-behind army Counter-Guerrilla engaged in domestic terror and killed hundreds. The overall death-toll of the terror of the 1970s in estimated at 5 000, with right-wing and terrorism responsible for the most part. According to statistics published by the British Searchlight magazine (n°47, May 1979, p.6), in 1978 they were 3 319 fascist attacks, in which 831 were killed and 3 121 wounded. In 1977, Counter-Guerrilla took part on the May 1, Taksim Square massacre, while left-wing newspaper editor Abdi ?pekçi was murdered in 1979 by Mehmet Ali A?ca, a Grey Wolves member who later tried to assassinate the Pope John Paul II in 1980. Counter-Guerrilla's commander, General Kenan Evren staged a military coup and seized power in 1980. The US-support of this coup was acknowledged by the CIA Ankara station chief Paul Henze. After the government was overthrown, Henze cabled Washington, saying, "our boys have done it." At the time there were some 1 700 Grey Wolves organizations in Turkey, with about 200 000 registered members and a million sympathisers. After being useful for the strategy of tension followed by Kenan Evren, the leader of the Counter-Guerrilla turned president outlawed the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Grey Wolves, its youth organization. The MHP had been founded in 1965 by Alparslan Türke?, a member of the Counter-Guerrilla. Colonel Türke? and other Grey Wolves were arrested. In its indictment of the MHP in May 1981, the Turkish military government charged 220 members of the MHP and its affiliates for 694 murders, according to Edward Herman and Frank Brodhead in The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection (New York, 1986, quoted by Ganser). However, Grey Wolves' imprisoned members were offered release if they accepted to fight the Kurdish minority and the PKK,[37] as well as the ASALA ("Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia"). They then went on to fight, with Counter-Guerrilla, Kurds, killing and torturing thousands in the 1980s, and also carrying false flag attacks in which the Counter-Guerrilla attacked villages, dressed up as PKK fighters, and raped and executed people randomly (Ganser, 2005).[38] The fact that Counter-Guerrilla had engaged in torture was confirmed by Talat Turhan, a retired Turkish lieutenant colonel. According to a December 5, 1990 article by the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Counter-Guerrilla had their headquarters in the building of the US DIA military secret service.[17] In addition, they carried out operations to assassinate the leader squad of ASALA, in which they have succeeded.
Former Turkish prime minister Bülent Ecevit recalled he had learned of the existence of Turkish "stay-behind" armies for the first time in 1974. At the time, the commander of the Turkish army, General Semih Sancar, had allegedly informed him the US had financed the unit since the immediate post-war years, as well as the MIT, the Turkish intelligence agency. Ecevit declared he suspected Counter-Guerrilla's involvement in the 1977 Taksim Square massacre in Istanbul, during which snipers opened fire on a protest rally of 500 000 citizens, organized by trade unions on May 1, killing 38 and injuring hundred. In 1976, a demonstration gathering 100 000 against the domestic terror, for which Counter-Guerrilla was largely responsible, had already took place. The next year, the demonstrators were met with bullets. According to Ecevit, the shooting lasted for twenty minutes, yet several thousand policemen on the scene did not intervene. This mode of operation recalls the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires, when the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (aka Triple A), founded by José Lopez Rega (a P2 member), opened up fire on the left-wing peronists... According to Kurtulus Turkish magazine (n°99, September 19, 1998 - quoted by Ganser, 2005), Turkish CIA agent Hiram Abas who "was closer than his own brother" to the CIA chief of station in Istanbul Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge (quotes from Clarridge's 1997 memoirs An Agent for All Seasons), was personally present on the May Day massacre. The Hotel International, from which the shots were fired, belonged to the ITT company, which had already been involved in financing the September 11, 1973 coup against Salvador Allende in Chile and was on good terms with the CIA. Hiram Abas had been trained in the US fin covert action operations and as an MIT agent first gained notoriety in Beirut, where he cooperated with the Mossad from 1968 to 1971 and carried out attacks, "targeting left-wing youths in the Palestinian camps and receiving bounty for the results he achieved in actions" (Kurtulus n°99). With MIT agent Mehmet Eymür, later promoted to direct the MIT's department for counter-espionage, Abas also participated in the Kizildere massacre of March 30, 1972, when they killed seven left-wing militants.
Other massacres include the Bahçelievler Massacre (October 9, 1978 - 7 university students who were members of the Turkish Worker's Party were assassinated by neo-fascists including Abdullah Çatl? and Haluk K?rc?), March 16 Massacre (March 16, 1978 - At the exit of the school, the police and fascists bombed and shot the leftist students in Beyaz?t Square, killing 7 people), Kahramanmara? Massacre (December 23-24, 1978 - 111 Alauoites were killed according to the official figures, the actual number was predicted to be much higher) and many more.
According to Le Monde diplomatique, Abdullah Çatl?, one of the leader of the Grey Wolves, "is reckoned to have been one of the main perpetrators of underground operations carried out by the Turkish branch of the Gladio organisation and had played a key role in the bloody events of the period 1976-1980 which paved the way for the military coup détat of September 1980. As the young head of the far-right Grey Wolves militia, he had been accused, among other things, of the murder of seven left-wing students." He was seen in the company of Avanguardia Nazionale founder Stefano Delle Chiaie, while touring Latin America and on a visit to Miami in September 1982.[39]
In Turkey, the stay-behind army was known as "Counter-Guerrilla". Related to the Millî ?stihbarat Te?kilât? (MIT), the Turkish intelligence agency, it engaged in domestic terror, supporting, as in Italy, a strategy of tension, which led to two military coup d'état in which it was directly involved. In 1971, after a military coup d'état carried on March 12, the stay-behind army Counter-Guerrilla engaged in domestic terror and killed hundreds. The overall death-toll of the terror of the 1970s in estimated at 5 000, with right-wing and terrorism responsible for the most part. According to statistics published by the British Searchlight magazine (n°47, May 1979, p.6), in 1978 they were 3 319 fascist attacks, in which 831 were killed and 3 121 wounded. In 1977, Counter-Guerrilla took part on the May 1, Taksim Square massacre, while left-wing newspaper editor Abdi ?pekçi was murdered in 1979 by Mehmet Ali A?ca, a Grey Wolves member who later tried to assassinate the Pope John Paul II in 1980. Counter-Guerrilla's commander, General Kenan Evren staged a military coup and seized power in 1980. The US-support of this coup was acknowledged by the CIA Ankara station chief Paul Henze. After the government was overthrown, Henze cabled Washington, saying, "our boys have done it." At the time there were some 1 700 Grey Wolves organizations in Turkey, with about 200 000 registered members and a million sympathisers. After being useful for the strategy of tension followed by Kenan Evren, the leader of the Counter-Guerrilla turned president outlawed the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Grey Wolves, its youth organization. The MHP had been founded in 1965 by Alparslan Türke?, a member of the Counter-Guerrilla. Colonel Türke? and other Grey Wolves were arrested. In its indictment of the MHP in May 1981, the Turkish military government charged 220 members of the MHP and its affiliates for 694 murders, according to Edward Herman and Frank Brodhead in The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection (New York, 1986, quoted by Ganser). However, Grey Wolves' imprisoned members were offered release if they accepted to fight the Kurdish minority and the PKK,[37] as well as the ASALA ("Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia"). They then went on to fight, with Counter-Guerrilla, Kurds, killing and torturing thousands in the 1980s, and also carrying false flag attacks in which the Counter-Guerrilla attacked villages, dressed up as PKK fighters, and raped and executed people randomly (Ganser, 2005).[38] The fact that Counter-Guerrilla had engaged in torture was confirmed by Talat Turhan, a retired Turkish lieutenant colonel. According to a December 5, 1990 article by the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Counter-Guerrilla had their headquarters in the building of the US DIA military secret service.[17] In addition, they carried out operations to assassinate the leader squad of ASALA, in which they have succeeded.
Former Turkish prime minister Bülent Ecevit recalled he had learned of the existence of Turkish "stay-behind" armies for the first time in 1974. At the time, the commander of the Turkish army, General Semih Sancar, had allegedly informed him the US had financed the unit since the immediate post-war years, as well as the MIT, the Turkish intelligence agency. Ecevit declared he suspected Counter-Guerrilla's involvement in the 1977 Taksim Square massacre in Istanbul, during which snipers opened fire on a protest rally of 500 000 citizens, organized by trade unions on May 1, killing 38 and injuring hundred. In 1976, a demonstration gathering 100 000 against the domestic terror, for which Counter-Guerrilla was largely responsible, had already took place. The next year, the demonstrators were met with bullets. According to Ecevit, the shooting lasted for twenty minutes, yet several thousand policemen on the scene did not intervene. This mode of operation recalls the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires, when the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (aka Triple A), founded by José Lopez Rega (a P2 member), opened up fire on the left-wing peronists... According to Kurtulus Turkish magazine (n°99, September 19, 1998 - quoted by Ganser, 2005), Turkish CIA agent Hiram Abas who "was closer than his own brother" to the CIA chief of station in Istanbul Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge (quotes from Clarridge's 1997 memoirs An Agent for All Seasons), was personally present on the May Day massacre. The Hotel International, from which the shots were fired, belonged to the ITT company, which had already been involved in financing the September 11, 1973 coup against Salvador Allende in Chile and was on good terms with the CIA. Hiram Abas had been trained in the US fin covert action operations and as an MIT agent first gained notoriety in Beirut, where he cooperated with the Mossad from 1968 to 1971 and carried out attacks, "targeting left-wing youths in the Palestinian camps and receiving bounty for the results he achieved in actions" (Kurtulus n°99). With MIT agent Mehmet Eymür, later promoted to direct the MIT's department for counter-espionage, Abas also participated in the Kizildere massacre of March 30, 1972, when they killed seven left-wing militants.
Other massacres include the Bahçelievler Massacre (October 9, 1978 - 7 university students who were members of the Turkish Worker's Party were assassinated by neo-fascists including Abdullah Çatl? and Haluk K?rc?), March 16 Massacre (March 16, 1978 - At the exit of the school, the police and fascists bombed and shot the leftist students in Beyaz?t Square, killing 7 people), Kahramanmara? Massacre (December 23-24, 1978 - 111 Alauoites were killed according to the official figures, the actual number was predicted to be much higher) and many more.
According to Le Monde diplomatique, Abdullah Çatl?, one of the leader of the Grey Wolves, "is reckoned to have been one of the main perpetrators of underground operations carried out by the Turkish branch of the Gladio organisation and had played a key role in the bloody events of the period 1976-1980 which paved the way for the military coup détat of September 1980. As the young head of the far-right Grey Wolves militia, he had been accused, among other things, of the murder of seven left-wing students." He was seen in the company of Avanguardia Nazionale founder Stefano Delle Chiaie, while touring Latin America and on a visit to Miami in September 1982.[39]
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