Retired Gen. Koman says he banned JİTEM activities

“I heard about JİTEM. It was established as a gendarmerie intelligence unit by gendarmerie staff. It was not a state institution. A [military] statement was issued that said there was no such [official military] unit as JİTEM and that it was used by ill-intentioned people. It was set up by people [military officers] who served in the Southeast. Its activities were later banned. I banned the activities of JİTEM, too,” Koman stated as he testified as a witness to the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court.

The court is hearing the case against Ergenekon, a terrorist organization that stands accused of working to overthrow the government. Dozens of suspected members of Ergenekon are currently behind bars on coup charges.

The 250th hearing in the Ergenekon case was held on Monday. Koman appeared before the court upon a request from two jailed suspects in the case, retired Brig. Gen. Veli Küçük and Workers' Party (İP) Chairman Doğu Perinçek. Küçük and Perinçek had previously asked the court to hear Koman about JİTEM and its activities.

Koman, 76, told judges that he served as the secretary-general of the National Security Council (MGK) between 1986 and 1988, and he served as undersecretary at the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) between 1988 and 1992. He served as the head of the Gendarmerie General Command between 1995 and 1997. The retired general said he knows Küçük personally. “He was an officer at the Gendarmerie General Command when I was appointed head of the command. I had him appointed to [serve in] Giresun. Then he was appointed to Bilecik, and then to Kocaeli as the head of the gendarmerie unit there in 1995. I met him there personally. I retired from the [Turkish] armed forces in 1997,” Koman stated.

The retired general was arrested in June of this year as part of an investigation into the Feb. 28, 1997 unarmed military coup. He stands accused of charges of “attempting to destroy the government.”

Judges at the court asked Koman if he knows retired Col. Arif Doğan, and Koman said “no.” When asked if he heard about Doğan's statements about JİTEM, Koman said: “I did not hear about them. I do not know what kind of activities JİTEM was engaged in.” When testifying to the same court as part of the Ergenekon case last year, Doğan made confessions about JİTEM and said it was he who established it.

JİTEM is believed to have been responsible for thousands of unsolved murders in eastern and southeastern Turkey in the 1990s. “JİTEM belongs to me. It is the Gendarmerie Intelligence Group Command that I later handed over to Veli Pasha [retired Gen. Veli Küçük.] JİTEM exists with me,” Doğan told the court.