“Trace of MİT in Eser and Kurt Deaths”
Alevi Bektashi Federation chairman Selahattin Özel has given new accounts on recent clashes between the police and members of the public in Okmeydanı, İstanbul, which again indicate the divider policies of the ruling AKP.
The general chairman of the Alevi Bektashi Federation, Selahattin Özel, has shed new light on recent tensions in İstanbul’s Okmeydanı in a number of statements made to Aydınlık newspaper in the wake of clashes between masked groups and police, where innocent bystander 30-year-old Uğur Kurt was shot by police, later dying of his injury. In his remarks, Özel painted a new portrait on recent tensions by asserting, “MİT (the National Security Organization) are behind the events” which saw Uğur Kurt and another man lose their lives, further divulging that he has received unconfirmed information that masked groups who threw molotov cocktails at police were from MİT.
Özel, whose accounts have shocked many across Turkey, in particular Alevi groups, also made new allegations relating to the death of Serap Eser, a 17 year old who was killed after a molotov cocktail was thrown at a bus in Küçükçekmece, İstanbul, on the 8 November 2009, claiming MİT had been behind this too.
After asserting that the Turkish Prime Minister and those close to him are trying to put Alevis and terror organizations side by side, Özel argued, “The PM and his spokespeople are continuously trying to correlate Alevis with terror groups. They are holding Alevis together with terror organizations. Previous to this incident, a girl of ours died in a molotov cocktail [attack] which was thrown at a bus. MİT came out behind this and [the AKP] let them go. The second point is that the are leftist groups, and it is true that they all clash with the police. But the public know them all there. On that day, how did police shoot a person who came to a funeral at a djemevi 800 meters away from where there was an altercation? Consequently, nothing happened to those in the clash there. The cause of our speculations relating to MİT is the people living in Okmeydanı. We said this in regards to the information you obtained there. We are not the state, we have no intelligence service. Our face is open. Those who have covered their faces are obvious. It remains that wherever there are leftists in the world, they have stood against injustice and will continue to. Holding these together with Alevi organizations is in vain.”