Mesut Hasan Benli
While the General Staff reported that “there has not been a structure like JITEM before and in the present”, the Gendermarie General Command stated that JITEM was established ‘by way of an attempt’ for a period.
For the court’s question of whether the stated organizations existed, the General Staff answered: “In the past and present, there has not been a unit named the National Strategies and Operations Department of Turkey under the Presidency of General Staff. Therefore, structures named JITEM, Black and White Forces connected to this unit also do not exist.”
* JITEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism in English) is the intelligence agency of the Turkish Gendarmerie, which is claimed to have been active in Turkish-Kurdish conflict.
** The National Strategies and Operations Department (TUSHAD in Turkish) is claimed to be a secret organisation within the Turkish Armed Forces.
*** In 1999, President Özal died of a suspicious heart attack, which has lead some to believe it to be an assasination.
– For the rest of the article in Turkish, Radikal
