İZMİR - Facing an investigation over the murder of Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adalı, Atilla Peker, in his petition to the prosecutor’s office, has confessed that he and former intelligence officer Korkut Eken went to Cyprus to kill Adalı.

 

Atilla Peker, the brother of Sedat Peker, who is accused of leading a criminal organization and currently abroad, has submitted a petition to the Fethiye Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. In his petition addressed to the İstanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, he has talked about what he knows about the killing of Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adalı in 1996.

 

While an unsigned version of his two-page petition has been reported in the press, Atilla Peker has said that he and Korkut Eken, a former officer of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), went to Cyprus.

 

WE GOT ON THE PLANE WITH KORKUT EKEN 

 

Atilla Peker has briefly stated the following in his statement:

 

"My brother Chief Sedat Peker called me in March or April 1996. He asked me to come to Ankara Sheraton Hotel. In line with his wish, I went there. There, in an environment where he and Korkut Eken were there, they told me that I had to go to Cyprus with Korkut Eken, there were terrorists who had martyred our police officers and soldiers and they had to be killed.

 

"The next day, while Korkut Eken and I were going towards the Turkish Airlines' scheduled flight to Cyprus without a check, he took out a couple of ID cards from his pocket, picked one, showed the one with the name Mustafa to the officers and had himself registered. Korkut Eken gave me a Jeriko gun and we got on the plane while I had the gun on my waist.

 

'HE GAVE ME A UZI GUN IN CYPRUS'

 

"We landed in Cyprus, we checked into a hotel, the name of which I do not remember now. The same day, we went to the Head of the Civil Defense Department in Cyprus. I met Staff Colonel Galip Mendi there. I met his assistant Lieutenant Colonel Enver Tosun.

 

"Then, Eken gave me a Uzi gun in the adjacent room. He taught me how to use this gun and how to install the silencer and to take it out.

 

'WE WENT TO ADALI'S HOUSE'

 

"The next day, in a white Renault Toros car, we inspected the area surrounding the house of the person named Kutlu Adalı after it got dark.

 

"As far as I remember, his house was near the road and it was in a garden. It had a small garden in front of it.

 

"We realized that there was a crowd of five-six people in front of his house. We did not go inside for this reason. I had the Jeriko gun on my waist and the Uzi brand gun with a silencer in my hand.

 

"We went there again the next day. We did inspections around the house a couple of times in the daytime. There were again a lot of voices coming from the house. Seeing this, Commander Korkut said to me, 'Even if there are 3 people, they are all from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Whoever is a friend of the PKK is a member of the PKK. It is okay if you kill them all.'

 

'HAVE HIM STOPPED BY SOLDIERS THAN HAND HIM OVER TO US'

 

"On the third day, we went to the office of an infantry regiment commander. Korkut Eken's request from the regiment commander whose name I cannot remember now was that the vehicle of the person named Kutlu Adalı be stopped by two high-ranking officers and it should be ensured that the related person be handed over to us.

 

"After a couple of hours, when we were informed that the vehicle of the person was stopped, we left the Infantry Command building quickly.

 

"The person had a child around the age of 15 with him. When we saw that the person was taken inside the headquarters and that he was surrounded by soldiers, we went back to the Regiment Commander's office.

 

"He reprimanded the Regiment Commander there, asking him, 'Was it what I wanted from you?' We went back to the Head of the Civil Defense Department and came back to Turkey the next day. However, Commander Korkut said to me, 'We will come back here, Atilla.'

 

'HE CALLED ME IN PRISON'

 

"Afterwards, while I was in Paşakapısı Prison for injury, he called me from the cell phone that I had with me and told me that he was staying in the Klasis Hotel and would visit me. I said to him, 'There is no visitation at the weekend. I will be out for hospital, I will visit you at the hotel.'

 

"Back then, there were no shuttle busses for hospitals in prisons. We took a taxi with the prison warden and soldiers and went to the hospital like this. After leaving the hospital, I ensured that they came in two civilian vehicles and went to the Silivri Klasis Hotel, where he was, together with the warden and soldiers. I asked the soldiers and warden to sit in the lobby.

 

'WE GOT THE JOB DONE'

 

"I went up to the room where Commander Korkut was staying. I saw that Chief Sedat Peker and a couple of other people were in the room.

 

"Korkut Eken kissed the noncommissioned officer and the specialist sergeant on their foreheads. Addressing me in laughter, he said "Atilla, we have got the Cyprus job done. Did you know that?'

 

"Then, towards morning, we came back to the prison before the count. I am ready to face the related people on every platform. My relation to what is talked about in the video is all about it."

 

BACKGROUND

 

Accused of leading a criminal organization and currently abroad, Sedat Peker has been posting some videos on YouTube regarding the 'state-mafia' relations in Turkey, targeting 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.

 

KUTLU ADALI MURDER

 

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, Kutlu 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, Kutlu 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 judgement 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."