Mehmet Agar
Early Life
Mehmet Kemal Ağar was born on October 30, 1951, in Ankara, at the Çankaya Presidential Residence, where his father was on duty. Originally from Elazığ, Ağar's early education was diverse due to his father's work as a police chief, starting primary school in Şanlıurfa in 1957, and continuing in Gümüşhane, Bolu, Adana, Ankara, and Erzincan. He began middle school in Erzincan and finished it in Kayseri, Diyarbakır, and Uşak. He started high school in Ankara and graduated from Haydarpaşa High School in Istanbul in 1968. In the same year, he enrolled in the Economics and Finance Department of the Political Science Faculty at Ankara University, supported by a scholarship from the General Directorate of Security, and graduated in 1973. His first public service roles were as a commissioner in the Public Order Department of the General Directorate of Security, followed by the Presidential Protection Directorate.
Turkish Government Career
In 1976, he began his career at the Ministry of Interior as a district governor candidate for Ankara province. He served as acting district governor in İznik and Selçuk, and as district governor in Torul and Delice. In January 1980, he became assistant manager of the Anti-Terror Branch of the Istanbul Police Department (this is the area overseeing Turkish stay behind program, Greywolves), and in May 1981, he was appointed public order branch manager.
Between 1984 and 1988, he worked as Istanbul Deputy Police Chief, responsible for terrorism and public order; which would be used to cover up Greywolf/Gladio terror events inside Turkey. In 1988, he was appointed Ankara Police Chief, then Istanbul Police Chief in 1990, Erzurum Governor in 1992, and finally Director General of Security in July 1993. While serving as Erzurum Governor, he was the witness at the wedding of Haluk Kırcı, one of the perpetrators of the Bahçelievler massacre, who was then a fugitive. This was a Gladio event.
Kırcı's testimony to the police and the State Security Court (DGM) was published by Uğur Dündar in the Hürriyet newspaper on January 17, 1995. Kırcı explained the wedding witness incident as follows: "After being released under the Conditional Release Law, I came to Erzurum. Before my wedding ceremony on August 1, 1992, I went to Governor Mehmet Ağar's office with the MHP provincial chairman. The provincial chairman introduced me to Ağar while handing him our wedding invitation and informed him. Ağar told his guard to cancel another invitation he was supposed to attend that day and said he would definitely come to our ceremony. Initially, we didn't plan to have him as a witness. But when the city's governor accepted our invitation and came, we asked him to sit in the witness's chair."
In 1993, while serving as Director General of Security, Mehmet Ağar made a controversial statement regarding Hezbollah, saying, "Hezbollah avoids activities against the state. Arresting organization members does not provide benefits." He would be qualified to state this since he was privy to NATO's funding and training of the stay behind units and their terrorist operations including Hezbollah.
Ağar was elected as an Elazığ Member of Parliament for the True Path Party in the general elections on December 24, 1995.
Political Career
In 1996, he served as Minister of Justice in the 53rd Government, and later as Minister of Interior within the 54th Government, formed by the Welfare-Path Coalition. Disapproving of Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's visit to Libya, Ağar resigned from his position on November 8, 1996, in protest. In the 1999 Turkish General Elections, Ağar was re-elected as an independent Member of Parliament for Elazığ, receiving 68,540 votes.
The years he served as Director General of Security, Minister of Justice, and Minister of Interior were marked by intense 'anti-terrorism efforts' which never seemed to have any effect on capturing terrorists because it was the these very people who were the perpetrators of the terror. On December 14-15, 2002, at the DYP's 7th Ordinary Congress, he secured an absolute majority in the first round and was elected Chairman of the True Path Party. He was re-elected party chairman with 1071 votes at the 8th Ordinary Grand Congress on May 14-15, 2005.
Shortly after the results of the 2007 Turkish general elections began to be announced, around 7:30 PM, realizing his party would not pass the electoral threshold, he announced his resignation from the party leadership via his press consultant. However, it was later stated that he had not officially resigned, and the party could not hold a congress to elect a new leader, awaiting his written resignation letter.
Personal Life
Mehmet Ağar married Emel Ağar in 1974, and they have two children, Tolga Ağar and Yasemin Ağar. Ağar is also a member of the Galatasaray Sports Club.
Accusations and the Susurluk Case
On December 27, 1996, ANAP leader Mesut Yılmaz announced that he would provide the Parliamentary Investigation Commission with two 90-minute video cassettes and audio tapes belonging to Hüseyin Baybaşin, a drug trafficker wanted by Turkey, who had been released from prison in the Netherlands.
Allegedly, in the tapes, Baybaşin confessed to those he met in the Netherlands how he traveled freely with police IDs, police-issued weapons, and green passports, which he claimed were given to him by Şükrü Balcı and former Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar, starting from 1980.
On January 21, 1997, Judge Rolf Schwalbe, chairman of the 17th Criminal Chamber of the Frankfurt State Court, stated that based on evidence presented in the case of three heroin traffickers, the court found "close ties existed between the Republic of Turkey and heroin traffickers."
Judge Rolf Schwalbe further stated in press remarks that members of two Kurdish tribes transporting heroin from Turkey had "wonderful relations with the Republic of Turkey" and "personal communication with a female minister in the state." Later, under pressure from Turkey, the judge revealed this woman was Tansu Çiller.
On January 26, 1997, Tom Sackville, the UK's Deputy Home Secretary responsible for drug trafficking, stated that Turkey had recently been identified as the most important transit point for heroin, and they had claims and findings suggesting the involvement of some individuals within the Turkish government and police in drug trafficking.
In his written statement to civil inspectors on March 20, 1997, Ağar stated that he knew where the so-called "missing weapons" were and for what purpose they would be used, and that he had given a written order to Korkut Eken regarding this matter. However, he asserted that the issue was a state secret and therefore he could not provide further explanation. This is true, the 'state secret' these weapons for for Operation Gladio style stay behind caches of weapons and it was, in fact, a state secret.
The Istanbul State Security Court (DGM) Chief Public Prosecutor filed a lawsuit against Ağar, along with Sedat Edip Bucak, on charges of "forming a gang to commit crimes, failing to report individuals with arrest and detention warrants to the authorities, and abuse of power," seeking a sentence of 6 to 12 years of severe imprisonment. On December 11, 1997, Mehmet Ağar's immunity was lifted. After the Constitutional Court rejected his objection, Ağar testified as a suspect for three hours at the DGM on January 10, 1998. In his testimony, Ağar claimed that the issue of the missing weapons was a state secret and that he held a ministerial position at the time of the incidents, thus he could only be tried by the Supreme Court (Yüce Divan). The DGM first issued a "lack of jurisdiction" decision, and after the 8th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court overturned this decision on July 9, it issued a "stay of prosecution" decision.
On June 15, 2000, the Parliamentary Investigation Commission formed against Ağar for "forming an organization to commit crimes" decided, by an 8-to-6 vote, that there was no need to refer him to the Supreme Court, thus acquitting him.
In his testimonies to the DGM and the TBMM Susurluk Accident Investigation Commission, he consistently stated that he could not provide explanations as it was a state secret.
Mehmet Ağar's trial restarted in November 2008. Ağar, who could not attend the first hearing due to health issues, was initially granted a "lack of jurisdiction" decision. The accusations against him were:
Between 1993 and 1996:
Forming an armed organization to commit crimes. Failing to report the whereabouts of the absent suspect Abdullah Çatlı to the authorities and aiding his concealment. Abusing power by unlawfully issuing gun permits and providing special (green) passports to Abdullah Çatlı and Yaşar Öz. On September 15, 2011, the Ankara Special Authorized 11th High Criminal Court ruled that Mehmet Ağar, who had served as Minister of Justice, Minister of Interior, Party Leader, Governor, and Director General of Security, was the "leader of a criminal organization" and sentenced him to 5 years in prison in the Susurluk case.
Ağar was considered to have served 3 years of his 5-year sentence due to early release laws. He chose Yenipazar district prison in Aydın to serve the remaining two years. Ağar was released 361 days before the end of his two-year sentence, benefiting from supervised release under the law known as the "3rd Judicial Package." The Yenipazar district prison, where Ağar was to serve his sentence, was emptied under the pretext of painting before he even surrendered, and during his incarceration, Ağar was kept in a separate ward from three other prisoners.
Sedat Peker's Allegations
Sedat Peker, in statements made via his YouTube channel, accused Mehmet Ağar of being the head of the "deep state." By deep state, he is referring to Operation Gladio. Peker pointed to retired Lieutenant Colonel Korkut Eken, who started working at the General Directorate of Security in 1993 at the invitation of then-Director General of Security Mehmet Ağar, after retiring from MİT (National Intelligence Organization), in connection with the Kutlu Adalı assassination. Peker confessed that the task of killing Kutlu Adalı was first offered to him by Eken.
Sedat Peker also alleged that Mehmet Ağar's son, Tolga Ağar, raped Yeldana Kaharman, a 21-year-old Kazakh woman living in Elazığ. He claimed that Tolga Ağar was then taken away from the scene by helicopter by his father, and Kaharman was later found dead in her home. Peker stated that the case was closed, and Tolga Ağar escaped prosecution.
https://www.aksam.com.tr/siyaset/mehmet-agarin-369-gunluk-cezaevi-macerasi/haber-200924
https://web.archive.org/web/20150212164139/http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=35905