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Prosecutors in İstanbul have opened an investigation into the 1996 assassination of Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adalı following online confessions of mob boss Sedat Peker.
Adalı was threatened and killed after writing about an alleged armed raid on a monastery in Cyprus to rob millions of dollars worth of icons.
In a YouTube video on May 23, Peker claimed that he was the one who was first picked to carry out the assassination. After being approached by a security officer, he had sent his brother Atilla Peker as a hitman but the attempt had failed, he claimed.
One day later, Attila Peker filed a petition with the prosecutors, explaining in detail what they did in Cyprus with now-retired former security and intelligence officer Korkut Eken.
Sometime after they returned from Cyprus, Eken had implicitly told him that Adalı had been killed after a second attempt, said Atilla Peker.
Eken admitted they went to Cyprus together but said he didn't have any knowledge of an assassination attempt.
CLICK - Retired general partly confirms Peker brothers' claims about killing of journalist
Who killed the journalist could never be found. In 2004, the ECtHR ruled that Turkey had not carried out an effective investigation into the incident.
The İstanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into the killing yesterday (June 1), after receiving the petition that Peker submitted to prosecutors in Fethiye, Muğla.
Documents related to the incident would be requested from the Northern Cyprus administration and Atilla Peker's detailed testimony would be taken, said the prosecutor's office.
Attila Peker went to the prosecutor's office at around 6 p.m. yesterday, Sedat Peker said on Twitter. "Many more cases will be opened, you'll see," he said.
Two former presidents of Northern Cyprus said Peker's confessions created an opportunity to solve the murder.
"An opportunity to solve the murder"
Mehmet Ali Talat, the second president of Northern Cyprus, noted that the police officer who had carried out the inquiry about the murder at the time currently heads the police and this would be an advantage.
"He is some who saw the evidence, he knows who told him to stop at what stage," he told the Cyprus-based Yenidüzen newspaper yesterday. "Maybe Ahmet Soyalan doesn't exactly know from which military authority the instruction came, because he got the instruction from his chief. But he is certainly a conscious person, I'm sure he also wants the incident to be uncovered."
"But what is essential here is that politicians [in Northern Cyprus] should take action and that Turkey should be convinced," he said.
Mustafa Akıncı, the previous president of Northern Cyprus, noted that Adalı's murder was immediately perceived as a political assassination carried out by Turkey among the public in Northern Cyprus.
"After concrete statements and concrete names are revealed, it would not be acceptable from now on to cover up this issue," he told daily BirGün.
"It has been revealed that this murder, like many similar murders, was carried out by monstrous fascists that were authorized to serve on behalf of the Turkish state in cooperation with mafia organizations," he said.
Sedat Peker videos
Formerly a pro-government figure who has been living abroad since late 2019, Peker has been releasing videos on state-mafia relations in the country since early May. Each of the videos where he makes serious allegations draw millions of viewers.
He has implicated current and former government officials in international drug trafficking, illegal arms and oil trade with Syria, political assassinations and corruption.
Among Peker's high profile targets are Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, former Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar, former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.
The assassination of Kutlu AdalıKutlu 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. |
(KÖ/VK)
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