SECRET ORGANIZATION WAS TASKED TO COMBAT ‘ARMENIAN SEPARATISM’

asbarez
Monday, April 4th, 2011

ISTANBUL–A clandestine intelligence organization operating within
Turkey’s police structure reportedly was assigned to combat “Armenian
separatism,” according to cables release by Wikileaks, reported the
whistleblower Web site’s Turkish partner, Taraf on Monday.

The cable, titled “A rare look at Turkish Military Intelligence: Iraq,
PKK worries, paranoia, anti-NATO campaign,” was dispatched on Dec. 21,
2004, by Robert Deutsch, then-defense attaché at the US Embassy in
Ankara, reported the Hurrieyt Daily News, quoting Taraf.

Deutsch spoke to an unnamed Turkish source described as someone “who
has experience on intelligence and security analysis” and “someone who
worked for 12 years at military intelligence and has given lectures at
the police academy in the past.” The source offered a report based on
talks with 40 operatives of the secret organization, known as JÄ°TEM,
as well as fieldwork in southeastern Anatolia.

The state reportedly assigned JÄ°TEM to combat “Armenian separatism”
in Southeast Anatolia, according to the cable. The order surprised
many JÄ°TEM officers, according to the unnamed source speaking to
Deutsch, given that only “a handful of Armenians [were known] to
remain in southeastern Anatolia.”

It was explained, however, that many Armenians changed their names
and hid their identities both willingly and by force during the events
of 1915, meaning that there was a continuing, though hidden, Armenian
presence throughout Southeast Anatolia that was worrying the state.

From: A. Papazian