 In this file photo from 2000, Tomris Özden, the wife of Gendermerie Col. Rıdvan Özen, speaks to a reporter. |
A new witness has stepped forward supporting allegations that a Turkish officer was assassinated by his own bodyguard in 1995 because of his quest for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem.
The General Staff said Gendarmerie Col. Rıdvan Özden died Aug. 14, 1995, in a shootout with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, but the man’s window, Tomris Özden, has long claimed her husband was murdered. Now, Bedran Akdağ, a former head village guard and one-time JITEM intelligence operative, has come forward, saying Rıdvan Özden was assassinated.
Akdağ also said he was prepared to testify in court.
The former village guard said bodyguard Kadir Yıldız, code-named “Servet,” was assigned to the colonel. “Özden was murdered after this man became his bodyguard. According to my intelligence, he was shot in the back of the neck during a supposed shootout by those who were supposed to protect him.”
Akdağ left the Derik district of Mardin years ago, but he said he would return after receiving assurances from prosecutors that his safety would be guaranteed.
Yıldız is rumored to have taken part in gendarmerie field operations and to have been under the orders of current Ergenekon suspect retired Gendarmerie Maj. Atilla Uğur. According to Akdağ, he was a defector from the PKK who was taken into protective custody by the state in the early 1990s.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Akdağ said Rıdvan Özden survived an assassination attempt when his car was fired upon in 1994 and added that it was strange that a former PKK member was assigned to be a bodyguard instead of a regular officer.
Yıldız was a member of a 10-man assassination squad called Team Knife and is allegedly now employed as a civil servant, Akdağ said. The information was apparently verified by a letter sent to the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office
Tomris Özden said her husband was warned to stay away from Yıldız and he believed the former PKK member had been assigned as his bodyguard to gather intelligence on the colonel’s approach to the Kurdish problem.
She also said Yıldız came to her after the colonel’s death and warned her not to look deeply into the circumstances surrounding her husband’s killing.
JİTEM is an alleged illegal intelligence and strike force within the gendarmerie. The clandestine organization has been accused of being behind dozens of unsolved murders, predominantly in the 1990s. Despite an ongoing lawsuit against JİTEM in Diyarbakır, the General Staff has never acknowledged JİTEM’s existence.
Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist, shadowy gang accused of planning to topple the government by staging a coup by initially spreading chaos and mayhem.
The General Staff said Gendarmerie Col. Rıdvan Özden died Aug. 14, 1995, in a shootout with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, but the man’s window, Tomris Özden, has long claimed her husband was murdered. Now, Bedran Akdağ, a former head village guard and one-time JITEM intelligence operative, has come forward, saying Rıdvan Özden was assassinated.
Akdağ also said he was prepared to testify in court.
The former village guard said bodyguard Kadir Yıldız, code-named “Servet,” was assigned to the colonel. “Özden was murdered after this man became his bodyguard. According to my intelligence, he was shot in the back of the neck during a supposed shootout by those who were supposed to protect him.”
Akdağ left the Derik district of Mardin years ago, but he said he would return after receiving assurances from prosecutors that his safety would be guaranteed.
Yıldız is rumored to have taken part in gendarmerie field operations and to have been under the orders of current Ergenekon suspect retired Gendarmerie Maj. Atilla Uğur. According to Akdağ, he was a defector from the PKK who was taken into protective custody by the state in the early 1990s.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Akdağ said Rıdvan Özden survived an assassination attempt when his car was fired upon in 1994 and added that it was strange that a former PKK member was assigned to be a bodyguard instead of a regular officer.
Yıldız was a member of a 10-man assassination squad called Team Knife and is allegedly now employed as a civil servant, Akdağ said. The information was apparently verified by a letter sent to the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office
Tomris Özden said her husband was warned to stay away from Yıldız and he believed the former PKK member had been assigned as his bodyguard to gather intelligence on the colonel’s approach to the Kurdish problem.
She also said Yıldız came to her after the colonel’s death and warned her not to look deeply into the circumstances surrounding her husband’s killing.
JİTEM is an alleged illegal intelligence and strike force within the gendarmerie. The clandestine organization has been accused of being behind dozens of unsolved murders, predominantly in the 1990s. Despite an ongoing lawsuit against JİTEM in Diyarbakır, the General Staff has never acknowledged JİTEM’s existence.
Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist, shadowy gang accused of planning to topple the government by staging a coup by initially spreading chaos and mayhem.
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