Arif Doğan

Arif Doğan
Personal details
Born 1945
Hatay
Died 2014
Military service
Allegiance Turkey
Service/branch Turkish Army
Rank Colonel

Arif Doğan (born Kırıkhan, Hatay Province, 1945) was a commander in the Turkish Gendarmerie, and said to be one of the founders of the Gendarmerie's JITEM intelligence unit. He was a defendant in the Ergenekon trials, and in August 2013 was sentenced to 47 years in prison.[1] He has stated in court that he founded JITEM in the late 1980s on the orders of Gendarmerie Commander Gen. Burhanettin Bigalı, with the approval of the Chief of Staff (Necip Torumtay) and of the Interior Ministry, and transferred control to Veli Küçük in 1990.[2] He had previously claimed to have founded JITEM on his own initiative, and to have "frozen" it in 1990.[3]

In 2010 a voice recording said to be of Doğan was anonymously posted online, in which Doğan said he had ordered the deaths of Eşref Bitlis and Cem Ersever, referring to the death of Bitlis (in a suspicious plane crash) as an "assassination". JITEM informant Abdülkadir Aygan said that this was true.[4] Doğan said that the voice in the recording was his, but said the recordings had been spliced to incriminate him.[5]

On 17 January 2011 Doğan, while testifying in court in the Ergenekon case, declared that he set up Kurdish Hizbollah as a contra group to fight and kill militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The organization was originally to be called Hizbul-Kontr ("Party of the Contras").[6]

References

  1. ↑ Today's Zaman, 5 August 2013, Long sentences for Ergenekon suspects, life for ex-army chief Archived August 6, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Hurriyet Daily News, 14 October 2010, Turkish dailies leak contradictory testimony from retired colonel
  3. ↑ Hurriyet Daily News, 27 September 2010, 'JİTEM founder' demands day in Turkish court
  4. ↑ Today's Zaman, 23 September 2010, Doğan’s account perfectly true, says ex-JİTEM member
  5. ↑ Hurriyet Daily News, 8 January 2013, Retired general testifies in probe into general’s death
  6. ↑ Benjamin Harvey (18 January 2011). "Turkey Officer Says He Created Local Hezbollah Group, Star Says". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
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