16 August 2010
Atilla Kıyat to be questioned in relation to deaths of two high rank Turkish army officers
Diyarbakir Chief Public Prosecutor office wanted retired vice-admiral Atilla Kıyat to be questioned in relation to deaths of 2 high rank Turkish army officers who alleged to have been killed by the PKK. It is reported that retired Vice-admiral will be summoned by Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Office upon request from Diyarbakir prosecutor office in order to testify about death of Brigadier General Bahtiyar Aydın and Colonel Rıdvan Özden.
Vice-Admiral Atilla Kıyat stated in an interview on Haber Turk Tv on 2 August that killings by unknown person or person carried out in the South-eastern Turkey between 1993-97 were a state policy. He also added that extrajudicial killings were used against the Kurdish national movement and they were carried out within the knowledge of president, prime minister, high rank military officers and governors of the Emergency Rule Region (OHAL) of the time.
Brigadier General Bahtiyar Aydın was allegedly killed by the PKK in Lice district of Diyarbakir on 22 October 1993 in front of his office. Colonel Rıdvan Özden was also alleged to be killed in clash with Kurdish guerrillas 12 August 1995. Özden’s wife Tomris Özden claimed that her husband’s death was suspicious as he was shot dead with one bullet hit back of his head. After he was assigned in Mardin colonel Özden revealed that Gendarmerie Intelligence Service JITEM was involved in drug trafficking. He also survived an assassination attempt in 1994. He was also a member of the team led by General Eşref Bitlis who died in a controversial plane accident on 17 February 1993.
There are thousand of Kurds who were became victims of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances. Investigations regarding these incidents either have not been started at all or dismissed before reaching an end.
ANF / DIYARBAKIR
ANF NEWS AGENCY
