Former intelligence officer Korkut Eken denies involvement in murder of journalist Kutlu Adalı

The assassination of Kutlu Adalı

Kutlu Adalı, a journalist from Northern Cyprus, was shot dead in front of his house on July 6, 1996, shortly after writing an article about the armed robbery of millions of dollars worth of icons from St. Barnabas Monastery in Famagusta, Cyprus. In his article penned on March 23, 1996, nine days after the robbery in question, he wrote that the official vehicles affiliated with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Head of Civil Defense Organization were used during the related raid.

While he was known as nationalist and patriotic by the Turkish politicians and his circle in Cyprus, he was a dissident of Rauf Denktaş, the then TRNC President. His house was targeted in an armed attack after penning an article about Denktaş titled "The lunatic at the minaret."

In his articles, Adalı was talking about a series of paramilitary organizations operating in Cyprus. He was alleging that several murders committed before Turkey's "Cyprus Peace Operation" in 1974 were in fact committed by them and the Cypriot Greeks were blamed.

On April 2, 1996, Adalı announced that he was receiving threats. The complaints of Adalı were not taken into account by the security officers. Adalı was shot to death in front of his house on July 6, 1996.

The investigation launched by the Northern Cypriot authorities remained inconclusive and it could not be found who had committed the murder.

So, his wife İlkay Adalı applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and filed a suit against Turkey. Handing down its judgment on March 31, 2005, the ECtHR convicted Turkey on the grounds of "the failure to carry out an adequate and credible inquiry into the murder."

What did Sedat Peker say?

Accused of leading a criminal organization and currently abroad, Sedat Peker has been attracting millions of views to his YouTube videos about the "state-mafia relations" in Turkey,

He targets current and former government officials, especially Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu and former Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar.

In his 7th video shared on May 23, Sedat Peker made some allegations about the assassination of Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adalı:

"At that time, we were all together, Mehmet Ağa, Korkut Eken... We were young, we were patriots. They would usually give me jobs related to businesspeople rather than unsolved murders," he said, referring to the widespread extrajudicial killings at the time, for which both Ağar and Eken stood trial. A court yesterday overturned their acquittal of killing 19 people.

"[Eken] told me that 'There is a man in Cyprus, he wants to sell Cyprus to the Greeks.' He said 'two professionals'... I told him 'I'll give you my brother, Atilla Peker.' He is a specialist, he grew up on the streets.

"Another team affiliated with them killed [Adalı]. I came across brother Korkut, he said to me 'That job is done.'

"Atilla Peker will tell the truth. If we killed him, I'd say we killed him. It's time-barred now. I always watched his spouse's struggle from afar. What should I say? We are all the same."

After the video, Attila Peker was detained in a villa in Fethiye's Kayaköy Neighborhood. Police officers also detained Yunus O., who is said to be his bodyguard, and seized an unlicensed gun and two magazines.

Taken into custody together with his private guard, Atilla Peker was released on probation with an international travel ban.

The Fethiye Prosecutor's Office has also launched an investigation into the assassination of Kutlu Adalı. Speaking in a live program on Habertürk TV on May 24, Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu announced that he had given an instruction for an investigation into the death of Kutlu Adalı, who was killed in an armed attack in front of his house on July 6, 1996.