Taksim massacre. Who was behind the crime: the CIA or the Turkish special services?
1 May, the Day of International Solidarity of Workers, did not take place in all countries, and passes peacefully. A number of states prefer to prohibit any political demonstrations on this day, and to disperse left-wing supporters taking to the streets with the help of the police. One of these countries is Turkey. Here, virtually every 1 of May has violent clashes between demonstrators and the police. This year marks exactly forty years of the massacre in Taksim Square, where 1 on May 1977 by snipers opened fire on the May Day demonstration of the Turkish left. For the communists and socialists of Turkey, this date, 1 May 1977, is still considered very significant - this is a tragic, memorable anniversary.
The political situation in Turkey in the 1970-ies. remained tense enough. Governments changed very often, right-wing and left-radical political organizations became more active. From 1928 to 1975, the celebration of 1 May was banned in Turkey. Only 1 in May 1976 of the Turkish Confederation of Trade Unions (DISK, Türkiye Devrimci İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu) brought its supporters to the streets of Istanbul to hold the first May Day demonstration for the first time since 1927.
By the time of the events described, the President of Turkey for four years was Fakhri Sabit Koruturk (1903-1987). A naval officer, Corutürk began serving as a cadet of a naval school back in 1916, in the Ottoman Empire, and served on navy almost half a century - until 1960. During this time, Koruturk rose to the rank of admiral of the fleet, not only commanding ships and naval formations, but also having served in military-diplomatic work - as a military attaché in Italy, Germany, and Sweden. In 1960, Admiral Fakhri Koruturk, who held the post of commander of the Turkish Navy, retired from military service and was for some time the Turkish ambassador to the USSR and Spain. In 1968, Koruturk became a member of the Turkish Senate, and on April 6, 1973, he was elected by the Turkish Grand National Assembly to the post of President of the Republic of Turkey. It is clear that Koruturk, a typical representative of the Turkish military elite, adhered to conservative views and was an opponent of the Turkish left. The Prime Minister of Turkey also spoke from a similar position. 1975-1977 the Turkish government was headed by Suleiman Demirel (1924-2015) - a man of right-wing conservative views, one of the founders and historical leaders of the Justice Party.
During the Cold War, the United States most feared the spread of communist ideology in the Middle East and the subordination of Turkey to the political influence of the Soviet Union. Since Turkey to 1960-1970-th years. the communist movement was seriously strengthened, the threat that the communists could, if not take power in the country, then at least create serious problems for the Turkish authorities, was very real. To oppose the communists, the Turkish government, with the support of US intelligence agencies, used right-wing extremist organizations. Under the transnational anti-communist network “Gladio”, the formation of underground anti-communist groups in Turkey took place. Their backbone, as a rule, consisted of active and former military personnel and police, sympathizing with right-wing radical views.
The creation of special military structures responsible for the opposition to the communists began immediately after Turkey joined NATO and turned it into one of the main bastions of the West in opposition to the socialist camp. 27 September 1952 created a special tactical mobilization group of the Turkish Armed Forces, headed by Brigadier General Danish Karabelen, who has been closely associated with US intelligence agencies since his internship in the United States. The group also included the famous Colonel Alparslan Turkesh, the creator and leader of the famous organization 2 Gray Wolves. ” Ismail Tansu became the closest associate of General Karabelin in organizing the group, who was responsible for liaison with the main network of anti-communist organizations in Turkey and for mobilizing a group of reserve officers to the ranks. They tried to recruit a group of former officers and non-commissioned officers who lived in eastern Turkey, where, as American and Turkish generals believed, there was the greatest risk of direct armed confrontation with Soviet troops.
A special role in the group’s activities was played by Ruzi Nazar, a famous political adventurer. During the Second World War, Ruzi Nazar, a native of Uzbekistan, was mobilized into the Red Army, but deserted and moved to the side of the Nazis. He fought on the side of Nazi Germany, and after the war he moved to Turkey, where 11 worked for years at the US Embassy in Ankara. Ruzi Nazar worked on the psychological preparation of the anti-communist organizations in Turkey, and was one of the first instructors of the Gray Wolves. In the end, Ruzi Nazar was hired by the CIA and then he headed the CIA office in Turkey.
In 1967, the tactical mobilization group of the Turkish Armed Forces, which was responsible for coordinating anti-communist organizations in the country, was renamed the Special Military Department (tour Özel Harp Dairesi (ÖHD). Its employees took an active part in the preparation of the military coup 1971 of the city. Financial assistance For a long time, the special services of the US military were provided to a special military department, which was kept secret not only from the public, but also from many representatives of the Turkish ruling elite, who l generals, could become opponents of this kind of action.
Meanwhile, in the spring of 1977, the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey planned to mark 1 in May with a large legal demonstration in the center of Istanbul - on Taksim Square. The Socialist Workers 'Party of Turkey, the Workers' Party of Turkey, the illegal Communist Party of Turkey were invited to participate in the demonstration. At the same time, the organizers of the demonstration, fearing provocations, refused to allow groups of Turkish Maoists to participate in it. Shortly before the demonstration, rumors began to spread in the political left of Turkey that bloodshed was possible. Obviously, there was a leak of information from the country's special services, but most of the left did not attach any importance to these rumors.
1 May 1977. At least 500 thousand people gathered in Taksim Square - members of trade unions, members of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions, representatives of socialist and communist parties. Suddenly shots rang out. They were shooting from the windows of the building where the water service was located at that time, as well as from the Marmara Hotel. Immediately after the shots, the armored vehicles of the police special forces entered the square. Police used water cannons and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators, causing panic attacks. People tried to run out of the square, there was a crush. As a result, died from 34 to 42 people. Later, representatives of the Istanbul police talked about the 34 dead, and the Confederation of the revolutionary trade unions of Turkey - about the 36 dead. 4 people died from the fire of snipers at the demonstrators, another 27 people were victims of the crush on the square that followed the shooting and entry of police units.
On that day, police detained about 500 people - demonstrators. 93 detained prosecutors filed charges, but later all of them were released. As for the snipers who opened fire on the demonstration, none of them was detained. The organizers of the massacre in Taksim Square could not be established either. It is not excluded that either American special services or, more likely, Turkish right-wing groups involved in Operation Gladio were behind this shooting. Prosecutor Четetin Etkin, who led the investigation into the incident, later told reporters that the gendarmerie had detained snipers on the roof of the water service building around 20. All of them were handed over to the police, but their names were not mentioned in the protocols, and the detained snipers were immediately released. Gendarmerie Lieutenant Abdullah Erim detained two gunmen, Mete Altan and Muhsin Bodur, who served in the Turkish army in officer positions. Later, Altan and Bodur rejected the charges of involvement in the shooting of a peaceful demonstration.
Prosecutor Etkin was transferred to another duty station after three months and removed from the investigation, and then he was forced to resign. In communication with the press, Etkin also said that the police had found a bag of explosive. Obviously, an explosion could have been prepared on the square in order to organize a panic. Soon Turkish politicians began to express their own versions of the tragedy that took place on Taksim Square.
21 June 1977, the post of Prime Minister of Turkey, was occupied by Mustafa Bulent Ecevit (1925-2006) - one of the most prominent at the time of the Turkish social-democratic politicians and leaders of the Republican Left People’s Democratic Party of Turkey. However, at the time of the shooting on Taksim Square, Ejevit was still in opposition and could afford himself very harsh remarks. For example, 7 in May 1977, speaking in Izmir, he said that there are organizations in the country that do not fit into a democratic state of law. Further, Ecevit bluntly emphasized that the “Countergirlia” could have been involved in the execution. But later, the politician declined his comment. Meanwhile, Suleiman Demirel warned Bülent Ecevit that in the event of opposition demonstrations in Taksim 3 square on June 1977, the opposition leader could himself become a victim of Turkish “countergalerleros”. In the same letter, Demirel reported that this time they could shoot from the Sheraton Hotel.
More radical leftist politicians spoke openly about involvement of the CIA in the shooting of Taksim Square. It was the Central Intelligence Agency in conjunction with the Turkish intelligence MIT organized an underground anti-communist network in Turkey, in several countries in Latin America and Europe, where there was the greatest likelihood of leftist forces coming to power.
The shooting at Taksim Square, with the connivance of the Turkish security forces, was a “tracing paper” of a similar crime committed in Argentina by local anti-communists who opened fire on demonstrations of left-wing Peronists. Already 2 May 1977, the secretary general of the Federation of Revolutionary Youth (Turkish Devrimci Gençlik), Bulent Uluer, openly declared that the CIA was responsible for the shooting at Taksim Square. Another trade unionist, Ali Kodjaman from the Oleis trade union, reported that according to his 1 information in May 1977, high-ranking Turkish military intelligence officers and staff members of the CIA residency in Turkey arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel, who allegedly carried out the direct organization of bloody events . This included, in particular, the Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence of MIT, Hirame Abase, who was trained in the United States, worked closely with the CIA, and at the end of XXNX-s. served in the MIT unit in Beirut (Lebanon), where he participated in various provocations against the Lebanese and Palestinian radical leftist youth.
By the way, the InterContinental Hotel belonged at that time to ITT, which was very notoriously involved in financing the military coup of 11 on September 1973 of the year in Chile, which brought Augusto Pinochet to power. Thus, the American trail in a provocation on Taksim Square could not be completely ruled out. In the years following the execution of Taksim Square, the celebration of the Day of International Solidarity of Workers in Turkey was almost always accompanied by large-scale clashes between Kurdish and Turkish left-wing radical youth with gendarme and police units, as well as with militants of right-wing radical organizations. The cultivation of violence was also promoted by the position of the Turkish leadership, which is still very negative about the celebration of May 1 in the country. In the 2017 year, in the year of the fortieth anniversary of those dramatic events, Turkish President Recep Erdogan again banned the May Day demonstration in Taksim Square. The current head of the Turkish state is widely known for his conservative views and regards the left and the Kurdish opposition as their main and most dangerous opponents.
But, despite the bans of the authorities, leftist supporters, trade unions, Kurdish national organizations again came out on Taksim Square on 1 on May X. Police units began to disperse the demonstrators by their usual methods - with the help of tear gas and plastic bullets. Several dozen people were detained trying to break into Taksim Square. It is noteworthy that the European Union, which so likes to appeal to the protection of human rights, including participation in opposition demonstrations, in this case actually condones Erdogan, recognizing the legitimacy of the results of the referendum, which seriously expanded the powers of the head of state.
The political situation in Turkey in the 1970-ies. remained tense enough. Governments changed very often, right-wing and left-radical political organizations became more active. From 1928 to 1975, the celebration of 1 May was banned in Turkey. Only 1 in May 1976 of the Turkish Confederation of Trade Unions (DISK, Türkiye Devrimci İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu) brought its supporters to the streets of Istanbul to hold the first May Day demonstration for the first time since 1927.
By the time of the events described, the President of Turkey for four years was Fakhri Sabit Koruturk (1903-1987). A naval officer, Corutürk began serving as a cadet of a naval school back in 1916, in the Ottoman Empire, and served on navy almost half a century - until 1960. During this time, Koruturk rose to the rank of admiral of the fleet, not only commanding ships and naval formations, but also having served in military-diplomatic work - as a military attaché in Italy, Germany, and Sweden. In 1960, Admiral Fakhri Koruturk, who held the post of commander of the Turkish Navy, retired from military service and was for some time the Turkish ambassador to the USSR and Spain. In 1968, Koruturk became a member of the Turkish Senate, and on April 6, 1973, he was elected by the Turkish Grand National Assembly to the post of President of the Republic of Turkey. It is clear that Koruturk, a typical representative of the Turkish military elite, adhered to conservative views and was an opponent of the Turkish left. The Prime Minister of Turkey also spoke from a similar position. 1975-1977 the Turkish government was headed by Suleiman Demirel (1924-2015) - a man of right-wing conservative views, one of the founders and historical leaders of the Justice Party.During the Cold War, the United States most feared the spread of communist ideology in the Middle East and the subordination of Turkey to the political influence of the Soviet Union. Since Turkey to 1960-1970-th years. the communist movement was seriously strengthened, the threat that the communists could, if not take power in the country, then at least create serious problems for the Turkish authorities, was very real. To oppose the communists, the Turkish government, with the support of US intelligence agencies, used right-wing extremist organizations. Under the transnational anti-communist network “Gladio”, the formation of underground anti-communist groups in Turkey took place. Their backbone, as a rule, consisted of active and former military personnel and police, sympathizing with right-wing radical views.
The creation of special military structures responsible for the opposition to the communists began immediately after Turkey joined NATO and turned it into one of the main bastions of the West in opposition to the socialist camp. 27 September 1952 created a special tactical mobilization group of the Turkish Armed Forces, headed by Brigadier General Danish Karabelen, who has been closely associated with US intelligence agencies since his internship in the United States. The group also included the famous Colonel Alparslan Turkesh, the creator and leader of the famous organization 2 Gray Wolves. ” Ismail Tansu became the closest associate of General Karabelin in organizing the group, who was responsible for liaison with the main network of anti-communist organizations in Turkey and for mobilizing a group of reserve officers to the ranks. They tried to recruit a group of former officers and non-commissioned officers who lived in eastern Turkey, where, as American and Turkish generals believed, there was the greatest risk of direct armed confrontation with Soviet troops.
A special role in the group’s activities was played by Ruzi Nazar, a famous political adventurer. During the Second World War, Ruzi Nazar, a native of Uzbekistan, was mobilized into the Red Army, but deserted and moved to the side of the Nazis. He fought on the side of Nazi Germany, and after the war he moved to Turkey, where 11 worked for years at the US Embassy in Ankara. Ruzi Nazar worked on the psychological preparation of the anti-communist organizations in Turkey, and was one of the first instructors of the Gray Wolves. In the end, Ruzi Nazar was hired by the CIA and then he headed the CIA office in Turkey. In 1967, the tactical mobilization group of the Turkish Armed Forces, which was responsible for coordinating anti-communist organizations in the country, was renamed the Special Military Department (tour Özel Harp Dairesi (ÖHD). Its employees took an active part in the preparation of the military coup 1971 of the city. Financial assistance For a long time, the special services of the US military were provided to a special military department, which was kept secret not only from the public, but also from many representatives of the Turkish ruling elite, who l generals, could become opponents of this kind of action.
Meanwhile, in the spring of 1977, the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey planned to mark 1 in May with a large legal demonstration in the center of Istanbul - on Taksim Square. The Socialist Workers 'Party of Turkey, the Workers' Party of Turkey, the illegal Communist Party of Turkey were invited to participate in the demonstration. At the same time, the organizers of the demonstration, fearing provocations, refused to allow groups of Turkish Maoists to participate in it. Shortly before the demonstration, rumors began to spread in the political left of Turkey that bloodshed was possible. Obviously, there was a leak of information from the country's special services, but most of the left did not attach any importance to these rumors.
1 May 1977. At least 500 thousand people gathered in Taksim Square - members of trade unions, members of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions, representatives of socialist and communist parties. Suddenly shots rang out. They were shooting from the windows of the building where the water service was located at that time, as well as from the Marmara Hotel. Immediately after the shots, the armored vehicles of the police special forces entered the square. Police used water cannons and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators, causing panic attacks. People tried to run out of the square, there was a crush. As a result, died from 34 to 42 people. Later, representatives of the Istanbul police talked about the 34 dead, and the Confederation of the revolutionary trade unions of Turkey - about the 36 dead. 4 people died from the fire of snipers at the demonstrators, another 27 people were victims of the crush on the square that followed the shooting and entry of police units.
On that day, police detained about 500 people - demonstrators. 93 detained prosecutors filed charges, but later all of them were released. As for the snipers who opened fire on the demonstration, none of them was detained. The organizers of the massacre in Taksim Square could not be established either. It is not excluded that either American special services or, more likely, Turkish right-wing groups involved in Operation Gladio were behind this shooting. Prosecutor Четetin Etkin, who led the investigation into the incident, later told reporters that the gendarmerie had detained snipers on the roof of the water service building around 20. All of them were handed over to the police, but their names were not mentioned in the protocols, and the detained snipers were immediately released. Gendarmerie Lieutenant Abdullah Erim detained two gunmen, Mete Altan and Muhsin Bodur, who served in the Turkish army in officer positions. Later, Altan and Bodur rejected the charges of involvement in the shooting of a peaceful demonstration.
Prosecutor Etkin was transferred to another duty station after three months and removed from the investigation, and then he was forced to resign. In communication with the press, Etkin also said that the police had found a bag of explosive. Obviously, an explosion could have been prepared on the square in order to organize a panic. Soon Turkish politicians began to express their own versions of the tragedy that took place on Taksim Square.
21 June 1977, the post of Prime Minister of Turkey, was occupied by Mustafa Bulent Ecevit (1925-2006) - one of the most prominent at the time of the Turkish social-democratic politicians and leaders of the Republican Left People’s Democratic Party of Turkey. However, at the time of the shooting on Taksim Square, Ejevit was still in opposition and could afford himself very harsh remarks. For example, 7 in May 1977, speaking in Izmir, he said that there are organizations in the country that do not fit into a democratic state of law. Further, Ecevit bluntly emphasized that the “Countergirlia” could have been involved in the execution. But later, the politician declined his comment. Meanwhile, Suleiman Demirel warned Bülent Ecevit that in the event of opposition demonstrations in Taksim 3 square on June 1977, the opposition leader could himself become a victim of Turkish “countergalerleros”. In the same letter, Demirel reported that this time they could shoot from the Sheraton Hotel. More radical leftist politicians spoke openly about involvement of the CIA in the shooting of Taksim Square. It was the Central Intelligence Agency in conjunction with the Turkish intelligence MIT organized an underground anti-communist network in Turkey, in several countries in Latin America and Europe, where there was the greatest likelihood of leftist forces coming to power.
The shooting at Taksim Square, with the connivance of the Turkish security forces, was a “tracing paper” of a similar crime committed in Argentina by local anti-communists who opened fire on demonstrations of left-wing Peronists. Already 2 May 1977, the secretary general of the Federation of Revolutionary Youth (Turkish Devrimci Gençlik), Bulent Uluer, openly declared that the CIA was responsible for the shooting at Taksim Square. Another trade unionist, Ali Kodjaman from the Oleis trade union, reported that according to his 1 information in May 1977, high-ranking Turkish military intelligence officers and staff members of the CIA residency in Turkey arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel, who allegedly carried out the direct organization of bloody events . This included, in particular, the Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence of MIT, Hirame Abase, who was trained in the United States, worked closely with the CIA, and at the end of XXNX-s. served in the MIT unit in Beirut (Lebanon), where he participated in various provocations against the Lebanese and Palestinian radical leftist youth.
By the way, the InterContinental Hotel belonged at that time to ITT, which was very notoriously involved in financing the military coup of 11 on September 1973 of the year in Chile, which brought Augusto Pinochet to power. Thus, the American trail in a provocation on Taksim Square could not be completely ruled out. In the years following the execution of Taksim Square, the celebration of the Day of International Solidarity of Workers in Turkey was almost always accompanied by large-scale clashes between Kurdish and Turkish left-wing radical youth with gendarme and police units, as well as with militants of right-wing radical organizations. The cultivation of violence was also promoted by the position of the Turkish leadership, which is still very negative about the celebration of May 1 in the country. In the 2017 year, in the year of the fortieth anniversary of those dramatic events, Turkish President Recep Erdogan again banned the May Day demonstration in Taksim Square. The current head of the Turkish state is widely known for his conservative views and regards the left and the Kurdish opposition as their main and most dangerous opponents.
But, despite the bans of the authorities, leftist supporters, trade unions, Kurdish national organizations again came out on Taksim Square on 1 on May X. Police units began to disperse the demonstrators by their usual methods - with the help of tear gas and plastic bullets. Several dozen people were detained trying to break into Taksim Square. It is noteworthy that the European Union, which so likes to appeal to the protection of human rights, including participation in opposition demonstrations, in this case actually condones Erdogan, recognizing the legitimacy of the results of the referendum, which seriously expanded the powers of the head of state.
Information