General staff calls on media to act responsibly

In its coverage, the media should act responsibly and with common sense, said the General Staff in a statement yesterday. The statement was issued in response to media coverage of Abdulkerim Kirca, a retired colonel who committed suicide on Monday after media stories accusing him of involvement in illegal activities when he headed the gendarmerie intelligence unit JITEM, an alleged secret military intelligence organization whose existence was consistently denied by officials. Blasting news coverage of Kirca as "extrajudicial execution," the statement said such stories are immoral and violate human rights. "In recent days, some media outlets have carried inflammatory news stories based on a so-called informant's testimony about Col. Abdulkerim Kirca, who was permanently disabled in clashes with terrorists on April 19, 1998," said the statement. It accused the media of finding people and institutions guilty based on unsubstantiated claims. Kirca's funeral at Ankara Kocatepe Mosque yesterday was attended by many officers, including Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug and the four force commanders, along with Interior Minister Besir Atalay. As part of the ongoing Ergenekon probe, an alleged PKK informant who lives abroad, Abdulkadir Aygan, has claimed that JITEM was involved in illegal activities during the 1990s, at the height of the fight against the terrorist PKK in southeastern Anatolia. Aygan also claimed that former Gen. Veli Kucuk, who is currently on trial under the Ergenekon probe, served as a group commander of the secret intelligence unit in the early 1990s.