Counterguerilla

Initially, the formation of an underground network of fighting right-wing nationalist organizations in the framework of the implementation of the general plan of "Counter-Guerilla" was carried out by the forces of the Tactical mobilization group of the Turkish Armed Forces. In Turkish political tradition, this group is called the tour. Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu or STK. In 1967, the STK was renamed the Special Military Department ( Tour. Özel Harp Dairesi (ÖHD), English Special Warfare Department ). Already in 1994, the department, whose officials and coordinators actively fought the left movements before the collapse of the USSR, was renamed the Special Forces Command ( tour. Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı , ÖKK). Currently, the historical assessment of the activities of organizations participating in the “Counterguerilla” is generally negative, and the majority of the Turkish population believes that the counterguerilla militants should be responsible for many unmotivated acts of violence and aggression against civilians in a long street confrontations within the framework of class and political struggle. On the whole, the opinion that the activity of the Counterguerilla was of exceptional importance for the history of Turkey during the Cold War was established in the mass consciousness of Turkish citizens. In particular, the combat detachments and nationalist groups of the Counter-Guerrillas took an active part in organizing the coups d'etat of 1971 and 1980 .

Military experts in Turkey believe that the Special Military Department was tasked with confronting the alleged Soviet “military invasion” in the front, but they most often deny or question the fact that the department’s fighters took part in covert operations involving murders, kidnapping and intimidation . After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the “Counterguerillas” groups were used to forcefully combat the fighting wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (consistently professing the ideology of Kurdish independence ). In particular, the activity of certain groups was noted during the public exposure of the scandal in Susurluk . Since the beginning of the 1990s, after the communist opposition virtually lost its relevance, the main target of the “counterguerro” was PKK fighters, which were regarded by the Turkish authorities as a serious internal threat to national sovereignty.

The existence of the Counterguerilla was officially announced in 1971, when representatives of the leftist movement, who survived the torture and interrogation at Villa Chiverbey after the coup d'etat of 1971, spoke about the existence of a network of right-wing radical organizations that physically prosecuted proponents of Marxist ideology. On September 26, 1973, the existence of an anti-communist underground was announced by Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit . Twenty days after Ecevit's revelatory speech, an attempt was made on him, but he survived. The next Prime Minister of Turkey, Turgut Ozal , who spoke openly about the existence of an influential underground, also survived an assassination attempt, the consequences of which were much more serious. The subject of the existence of “Counterguerilla” has been touched upon by the Turkish Parliament about 27 times since 1990, but since then, not one of the attempts to investigate has been successful.

The geostrategic importance of Anatolia has traditionally attracted the attention of major world powers. After the Yalta and Potsdam Conference of 1945, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin sent warships to the shores of the Dardanelles . It is known that JV Stalin planned to incorporate part of the territory of Turkey - Western Armenia , where a large number of ethnic Armenians lived, who did not have the opportunity to reunite. In Iran and Armenia, there were three Soviet armies, which at any time by order of the supreme commander could begin to act. During the Potsdam Conference, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov demanded the return of the territories of Kars , Artvin and Ardahan , and also demanded that the USSR be given a naval base in the Dardanelles. This demand provoked serious diplomatic opposition from Western countries, whose intelligence services began to plan the creation of an underground anti-communist organization in Turkey. The fears of the Western powers intensified after JV Stalin, at a meeting with the leaders of the Communist Party of Bulgaria, noted that the problem of the Turkish bases on the Dardanelles "will certainly be resolved at this conference." Also, the plans of the Soviet leadership in the event of obstacles in the construction of bases in the Straits included the requirement to acquire bases in the Mediterranean Sea . Later, in 1946, the USSR sent two notes of protest over the fact that the Montreux Convention does not contribute to the observance of the geopolitical interests of the Soviet Union. In particular, on August 7, 1946, the USSR turned to Turkey with a note in which it put forward 5 demands on the Black Sea Straits as leading into the closed sea. According to the Soviet Foreign Ministry, control over the Straits was to be exercised exclusively by the Black Sea states. This note was soon rejected by Turkey with the active support of the Western powers. The United States also issued a critical statement in response.

On February 21, 1947, the British government announced its inability to provide financial support to Turkey, in connection with which Ankara decided to appeal to the United States. The Americans, in turn, developed the Truman doctrine of the comprehensive confrontation of the Soviet system, including in the scope of the doctrine and Turkey. Shortly after the US Congress ratified Truman's doctrine on March 12, 1947, $ 100 million was allocated to the Turkish side. By 1953, that figure had risen to $ 233 million after Ankara sent 5,000 troops to participate in the Korean War as part of the UN contingent. In August 1947, the American Military Assistance Mission to Turkey (JAMMAT) was founded under the patronage of the US ambassador to Turkey in Ankara. On October 5, 1947, a delegation of Turkish military officers and civilian officials went on a semi-official visit to the United States to conclude a military cooperation agreement and an agreement on economic cooperation. In December 1947, the US National Security Council issued Directive A-4, which gave the CIA permission to "continue this officially non-existent program." Thus, the CIA received secret permission to cultivate an armed anti-communist underground in Turkey. A few months later, the US NSS adopted Directive 10/2 instead of the former Directive A-4, which formalized the creation of the Bureau of Political Coordination (at first this agency was called the Bureau of Special Projects). Initially, the organization’s strategy was focused on “propaganda, an economic war, direct actions, sabotage and counter-sabotage, dismantling actions, subversive activities against hostile states, including through underground resistance movements, as well as supporting indigenous anti-communist elements in free countries endangered world. "

After joining the Alliance on February 18, 1952, Turkey signed an agreement on the joint use of military facilities, which officially entered into force on June 23, 1954. It is after the registration of NATO membership in 1952 that we can talk about the countdown to the history of “Counterguerilla”. The first agents of the anti-communist underground were retired officers who took the oath of allegiance and received special training under the guidance of American military instructors, and then trained in special courses to intensify underground work, after which they returned to civilian life. Among the putschists who overthrew Adnan Menderes’s government in 1960 were members of the Counterguerilla military groups. Actually, the beginning of the underground “Counterguerilla” activity was preceded by lengthy preparatory work, which was notable for its scale, since in 1959 the JAMMAT coordination center read 1,200 employees, including security forces, which was the largest unit of the US Armed Forces European Command , and at the time of 1951 it was the largest world contingent of military assistance. In 1958, JAMMAT was renamed the US Military Assistance Mission for Turkey (JUSMMAT). Since 1994 it has been called the Office of Military-Technical Cooperation with Turkey.

With the consent of the National High Defense Council, Brigadier General Danish Karabelen founded the Tactical Mobilization Group, which became the first stage of the technical design of the “Counterguerilla” on September 27, 1952. Karabel was among those soldiers who were sent to the United States under President Mustafa Ismet Inönyu . In addition to Karabelen, this group included Turgut Sunlap , Akhmet Yildiz , Alparslan Türkesh (one of the creators of the Gray Wolves and an active participant in the coup of 1960), Sufi Karaman and Firket Ateshdali . In fact, these military personnel underwent military special training in the United States in a secret mode. Among the generals who led the Tactical Mobilization Group were Adnan Dogu , Aydin Ylter , Sabri Yirmibesoglu, Ibrahim Turkenchi, Doan Bayazit and Fevzi Turkeri. Ismail Tansu became the right-hand man of Danish Karabelen, who, on behalf of all the Counter-Guerilla structures, directly contacted and received instructions from representatives of the responsible groups of the external intelligence agency. It was Karabelin and Tansu who came up with the principle of the oath of allegiance for reserve officers who were recruited to the Counterguerilla. The recruitment of fighters for the organization took place mainly in the eastern regions of Turkey, where the probability of a collision with the enemy seemed to be the highest.

Among the teaching aids and textbooks that officers who were recruited by the Counter-Guard became familiar with were Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice, authored by a French military officer, intelligence officer David Gallula , an authoritative specialist in areas of strategy for suppressing partisan movements, as well as the US Army military training manual “Operations Against Irregular Forces”. An important guide for the participants was Colonel Kait Vural 's Introduction to Geril.

Later, representatives of the Turkish generals formed a special group (Turkish Resistance Organization), which was supposed to fight against the Greek Cypriot underground organization EOKA , fighting against any form of manifestation of British domination. Ismail Tansu testifies that the first headquarters of the “Counterguerilla” was located in the old house of Gulkhan, and then moved to the Villa Koley, which is located in Kizilai, an area in the central part of Ankara.

By the mid-1960s, the secret paramilitary structures created by the American intelligence agencies as part of the Gladio operation gradually ceased to exist, and the Turkish Counterguerilla was an exception to the rule. Part of the “counterguerrero” became the core of the right-wing parties of the Kemalist nature , for example, the Party of the National Movement. The other part joined the ranks of the terrorist ultra-right group Gray Wolves. At the same time, Türkesh, in parallel with the founding of the Nationalist Movement Party, founded the Anti-Communism Association, which was also guided by sabotage and terrorist methods. The CIA went on the trail of such Turkish military leaders and public activists who had previously served in the SS , for example, Ruzi Nazar , an American Uzbek, a long-standing fighter against communism. Nazar, who participated in the hostilities on the side of Nazi Germany, after the war, served in the US Embassy in Ankara for about 11 years, after which he crossed to Bonn . Ruzi Nazar in Turkey took an active part in conducting military-training events, including training in methods of conducting psychological warfare. He is also known as the first trainer of the Gray Wolves. The reputation of Ruzi Nazar, however, was very doubtful, since he, a young native of Uzbekistan , deserted from the Red Army to reunite with parts of the Third Reich . After this, Ruzi Nazar set the stage for the struggle for the independence of Central Asia , which would lead to their artificial separation. Soon, Nazar, well-proven in the service, became the head of the CIA in Turkey.

From 1965 to 1994, the Counter-Guerilla Coordination Center was the Special Military Department ( Özel Harp Dairesi Tour ), which took over the main functions of the Tactical Mobilization Group. The department, which implemented the anti-communist struggle strategy, was led by experienced Turkish general Kemal Yamak from 1971 to 1974. Позже, с 1987 по 1989 год Кемаль Ямак занимал должность командующего сухопутных войск Турции. На протяжении нескольких десятилетий ОВД наряду со многими антисоветскими организациями находился на дотационном содержании американских фондов.

В 1974 году ОВД занимался разработкой плана по вторжению на Кипр , в котором впоследствии принял активное участие. Вооружённой интервенцией на Кипр руководил генерал Сабри Йырмибезоглу . В 2010 году генерал Йырмибезоглу заявил в интервью на новостном государственном телеканале Habertürk TV , что специальные бригады турецких диверсантов сожгли одну из мечетей во время конфликта на Кипре с целью спровоцировать акции гражданского сопротивления греков против турок на спорном острове, чтобы получить повод для официального военного вторжения под предлогом защиты мирного турецкого населения.

В мемуарах генерал Ямак отмечал, что в 1973 американская сторона выразила готовность оказать движению Контргерильи (и ОВД в частности) финансовую помощь в размере 1 миллиона долларов, часть которых предписывалось потратить на вооружение. Это соглашение соблюдалась турецкими военными до 1974 года, когда генерал Ямак пришёл к выводу, что приобретение такого большого количества оружия и боеприпасов не отвечало потребностям департамента. Американцы якобы ответили, что они оплачивают деятельность ОВД, соответственно, они имеют право на единоличное принятие решения. Ямак пошёл на демарш и покинул заседание совместной рабочей группы, после чего уговорил начальника Генерального штаба Турции Семиха Санкара отказаться от продолжения сотрудничества с американскими спонсорами. Таким образом, через короткое время после демарша Камиля Ямака договор об американской финансовой поддержке был аннулирован. Однако вскоре Камиль Ямак запросил средства для поддержки деятельности ОВД у премьер-министра Бюлента Эджевита, которому только тогда и стало известно о проведении секретных военных операций и о существовании подпольного антисоветского движения. Эджевит предложил ОВД искать помощи в европейских государствах, после чего Ямак связался с представителями военно-политической элиты Великобритании и Франции , однако те не смогли оказать существенной финансовой поддержки. В свою очередь, командующий сухопутными силами Турции генерал Самих Санкар сообщил Ямаку, что американская сторона регулярно спонсировала ОВД наряду с Национальной разведывательной организацией на протяжении многих лет после Второй мировой войны .

В начале 1990-х годов между Турцией и США были натянутые отношения из-за « курдского вопроса », который Анкара намеревалась решить довольно радикальным способом. Курдское население Турции систематически подвергалось экономической, социальной и этнокультурной дискриминации, что вызывало серьёзную критику со стороны официального Вашингтона. С целью ослабить влияние США на вооружённые силы Турции руководитель Генерального штаба Турции генерал Доган Гюреш провёл структурную и кадровую реорганизацию подведомственного ему Особого военного департамента и в 1992 году переименовал его в Команды особого (специального) назначения ( тур. Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı ), что несколько расширило официальные полномочия ключевой организации антисоветского в прошлом военизированного подполья. Бойцы этих команд в обиходной речи и даже в официальном канцелярском дискурсе получили название «Каштановые береты» или «Бордовые береты» ( тур. Bordo Bereliler ), в основные задачи которых входила борьба с нарастающей угрозой терроризма, предотвращение потенциальных внутренних угроз и обеспечение охраны высокопоставленных чиновников оборонного ведомства и государственных деятелей. Прозвище «Бордовые береты» распространилось примерно на 7000 бойцов, завербованных в ряд этих военизированных бригад особого назначения с начала 1990-х годов. Гражданские лица, входившие в состав «Контргерильи» в статусе разведчиков, информаторов, наблюдателей, были названы «Белыми силами» ( тур. Beyaz Kuvvetler ).

В 1993 году турецкий меджлис сформировал чрезвычайную комиссию, деятельность которой была посвящена расследованию серии загадочных убийств оппозиционных политических деятелей и общественных активистов, в которых, по версии следствия, могли быть замешаны участники «Контргерильи». В докладе, призванном инициировать судебный процесс по этому щекотливому вопросу, содержались непреложные факты о 1797 летальных случаях, при этом 312 человек погибли от рук активистов «Контргерильи» в 1992, а в 1993 году якобы расстались с жизнью 314 человек по вине боевых отрядов законспирированной всё ещё «Контргерильи». В это время генерал Гюреш связался со спикером меджлиса Хюсаметтином Джиндоруком и попросил его не продолжать расследования, чтобы не допустить разоблачения его агентов, которые могли бы выступить в роли подсудимых на публичном судебном разбирательстве. Впрочем, обвинитель со стороны Государственного совета по безопасности Нурсет Демирель отдал приказ полицейским силам не вступать в ожесточённое противостояние с парламентской комиссией с целью понизить уровень преступности. Турции через некоторое время путём тонкого замалчивания проблемы прав человека в отношении курдского населения смогла наладить свои испортившиеся отношения с американской администрации. Вскоре председатель Бюро по оборонному сотрудничеству в Турции заявил, что является основным связующим звеном между Турецким генштабом, американскими чиновниками оборонного ведомства и гражданскими активистами диссидентского толка; это же заявление в 2008 году сделал и бригадный генерал Эрик Росборг . С 1993 года руководителями (командирами) Бюро по оборонному сотрудничеству всю больше становились генералы Вооружённых сил США.

Стамбульский погром

С 6 по 7 сентября 1955 года представители «Контргерильи» принимали участие в разработке, планировании и осуществлении карательной операции, которая получила название « Стамбульский погром », направленный преимущественно против греческого населения, компактно проживавшего в островной или приостровной зоне ^[3] . В это время участники подполья выступали с антикоммунистической визуальной пропагандой и дискредитацией идеологических устоев коммунизма вкупе с тезисом о необходимости скорейшей тюркизации.

Деятельность Махира Каинака

В то же время после военного путча 1960 года, санкционированного и проведённого при прямом участии основателей «Контргерильи» через год был раскрыт новый заговор военной элиты страны, в котором, по донесению сил внутренней разведки, некоторые высокопоставленные турецкие военные чиновники и руководители военно-воздушных сил Турции принимали участие в готовящемся заговоре. Планируемый переворот был разоблачён агентом Организации национальной разведки Махиром Каинаком , который проинформировал об антигосударственных намерениях генерала и руководителя ВВС Мамдуха Таджмача и также ярого антикоммуниста, командира Первой армии, базировавшейся в Стамбуле Фаика Тюруна, который являлся ветераном Корейской войны, лично награждённый после боевых действий Дугласом Макартуром .

Сведения, добытые и проведенные агентом Каинаком, указывали на то, что группа молодых и амбициозных офицеров под руководством руководителей Генерального штаба самого высокого ранга планировали насильственную смену государственной власти 9 марта 1971 года при медийной поддержке просоветстких левых интеллектуалов, воспитанных на идеологических ценностях марксизма. Статьи в поддержку заговорщиков уже появились в ряде левоориентированных турецких периодических изданий.

10 марта 1971 года агенты ЦРУ отправили в государственный департамент обороны подробные сведения о том, что турецкое высшее командование планировало осуществить дерзкий контрпереворот и восстановить конституционные права свергнутой политической элиты. Вскоре после пересылки ЦРУ важных письменных свидетельств о готовящемся заговоре был осуществлён государственный переворот 1971 года; его целью стало окончательное подавление попытки переворота, которую, под данным ЦРУ, планировали прокоммунистические сил левого крыла. После этого просоветская интеллигенция и боевые бригады марксистов подвергались арестам и задержаниям, по отношению к ним применялись пытки и часто создавались невыносимые условия пребывания в заключении в положении пленных. Один из участников несостоявшегося путча полковник Талат Турхан был допрошен лично председателем Национальной разведывательной организации Эйипом Озалкусом .

Фактор Алпарслана Туркеша

Таким образом, на протяжении 1970-х годов стратегия организованного антикоммунистической борьбы, которую взяли на вооружение правые радикалы, костяк Контргерильи, трансформировалась в спорадические акты внутреннего террора, которые стали прелюдией к следующему путчу 1980 года в истории современной Турции. Новый переворот получил горячую поддержку среди парламентариев Турции, многие из которые в юности имели отношение (были завербованы) к боевым организациям «Контргерильи». С помощью этого переворота его организаторам, имевших прямое отношение к «Контргерилье», удалось установить в стране фактическую военную диктатуру, после чего начались процессы, которые иллюстрируют власть малокомпетентной в гражданских делах военной элиты, например, постепенное упрощение системы высшего образования. После того, как Арпаслан Тюркеш, видный координатор «Контргерильи», исполнил роль «разжигателя» переворота, он был отстранён от механизмов принятия решений, подвергнут допросу и заключён в тюрьму, предназначенную для членов государственного военного командования. Известно, что начальник тыла сухопутных сил генерал Джамель Маданоглу хотел отдать приказ о расстреле Тюркеша, однако его друг Рузи Назар (тоже бывший активным работником ЦРУ) вступился за него.

Допросы и пытки на вилле Чивербей

After the coup d'etat of 1971, Villa Chiverbey on Baghdad Avenue (Erenkoy) in Istanbul became a place of interrogation with torture against potential conspirators - left activists who opposed the radical right coup and defended Marxist ideology. One of the inspirers of the left-wing protests was the leader of the Turkish People’s Liberation Party, Mahir Chayan , who is often called the Turkish Che Guevara . Participants in street protests, mainly representatives of pro-communist students, intended to establish a Baathist government over time through the people's liberation revolution, but their mass demonstrations were suppressed by the brigades that made up the counter wing of the counterguerilla. This wing was headed by the same Arpaslan Türkesh. Brigadier General Memduh Unlütürk , who carried out the orders of Lieutenant General Turgut Sunlap, who, in turn, reported on the work done personally to the commander of the First Army, General Faik Tyuryun, was the inspiration for the interrogations practiced at Villa Chiverbey. Both Unlütürk and Sunlap were veterans of the Korean War and served in the Department of Operations ( Tour. Harekât Dairesi ). The brutal interrogation methods used by their subordinates at Villa Chiverbey were largely borrowed from the practice of inquiry used against Chinese and Korean prisoners of war during the military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula in 1950-1953. Prisoners were tied up, blindfolded, beaten and harassed. Thus, the members of the secret military units of the Counter-Guerilla by 1973 suppressed the left movement in the country, which opposed the implementation of a whole range of military-economic and cultural-ideological reforms, which were advocated by the pro-Western governments of Turkey. In Turkish journalistic discourse, the name of Villa Chiverbey subsequently became a household name.

During the reprisals against local communists and representatives of the left-wing protest movement in Villa Chiverbey, a Turkish journalist, lawyer, writer and publicist Ilkhan Selchuk , as well as a young journalist Ugur Mumju , were tortured. A number of interrogation victims subsequently testified that the punishers called themselves participants in the Counter-guerilla and claimed to be above the law and empowered to kill those who oppose stability and order in the state.

Acrostic Selcuk

It is noteworthy that Ilkhan Selchuk, forced under psychological and physical pressure to write an upright confession of the crimes he was charged with, was able to encrypt the phrase “I am under torture” in his text in the form of an acrostic of a special form, which later became a widely known fact from his biography. Akrostikh was built in such a way that the key letter of this encrypted message was on the first letter of the penultimate word in each sentence of Selchuk's confession. Another prisoner in Villa Chiverbei, a prominent liberal opposition leader Murat Belge , subsequently claimed that he was personally tortured by Veli Kuchuk , who later became the founder of the Gendarmerie and Counter-Terrorism Service ( tour. Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele ) and Turkish Hezbollah (radical Islam Sunni organizations) - both of these organizations took an active part in the suppression of the Kurdish liberation movement in the 1980s, but Kuchuk subsequently denied having participated in the torture and massacre of the Chiverbey prisoners.

Yilmaz Guney's arrest

Turkish filmmaker Yılmaz Guney was also arrested in 1972 on charges of granting asylum to members of anarchist armed groups, but his friend from the National Intelligence Organization attempted to intervene for Guney, saying that the filmmaker worked for the special services and infiltrated the left organization with the aim of exposing it later . However, the trick failed and Guney spent some time in custody. However, the attitude towards Yilmaz Guney was more humane due to his wide popularity in the world of cinema and his willingness to cooperate with the investigation.

Punitive operation in the village of Kyzyldere

Another significant military operation carried out by the fighters of the Counterguerilla took place on March 30, 1972 in the village of Kyzyldere in the Nixata region of Tokat province . During a punitive raid, 10 young people were killed who participated in the abduction of three foreign hostages - two British and one Canadian citizen, who worked at a radio station in Inye. The abduction was carried out in order to obtain an exchange of foreign citizens for three prisoners of the underground Turkish People’s Liberation Army, Deniz Gizmash , Huseyin Inan and Yusuf Aslan , who were threatened with the death penalty. Among the victims of the punitive from Counterguerilla were Mahir Chayan himself, “Turkish Che Guevara”, one of the founders and leaders of the 1968 revolutionary generation, the creator of the Popular Front Party of Turkey; Hudai Arikan , one of the coordinators of the Turkish Revolutionary Youth Federation; Cyhan Alptekin, activist of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey; taxi driver Nihat Yilmaz; teacher Ertan Saruhan; farmer Ahmet Atasoy; left-wing youth activist Sinan Kazim Ozyudogru; students Sabahattin Kurt and Omer Aina, as well as Lieutenant Saffet Alp. In the future, three activists, who were expected to be released by the participants in the abduction of foreigners, were also executed, which became a triumph of the right-wing anti-Soviet forces of Turkey.

The fighter of the Special Military Department, Mehmet Kaplan, admitted that Counterguerilla is also responsible for carrying out this operation, despite the fact that General Janak denied everything. Kaplan spoke about his conversation with General Unlütürk, during which they discussed what to do with the arrested left activists; allegedly on the advice of American generals, they were allowed to escape from detention from the political prison of Maltepe, as a result of which they were able to abduct three NATO troops, which gave an official reason for reprisal against them.

In the second half of the 1970s, the counter-guerilla war wing brigades took part in planning and conducting a series of anti-communist sabotage provocations, and subsequently turned their attention to internal opposition to the liberation movement organized by the Kurdish Workers Party.

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