Bahtiyar Aydın (194622 October 1993) was a Turkish general. He was a regional commander in the Turkish Gendarmerie in

Lice Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...

, Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey when he was assassinated by a sniper using a Kanas rifle. Officially a victim of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK) (which denied responsibility), his death has long been considered suspicious. He was said to have "close relations with the public" and not to approve of the extrajudicial violence which was commonly used by the Turkish military in south-eastern Turkey at the time.

Response to assassination

According to former PKK commander

Şemdin Sakık Şemdin Sakık (born Muş Province, Turkey 1959), nicknamed ''Semo'' or ''Parmaksiz Zeki'' (fingerless Zeki) for having lost a finger while firing a rocket, is a former commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s military forces. He is be ...

, Aydın was one of those assassinated by the

Doğu Çalışma Grubu The Doğu Çalışma Grubu (DÇG; en, East Study Group or East Working Group) was an alleged group within the Turkish military said to be linked to the Ergenekon organization, and possibly organised within the Turkish Gendarmerie's JITEM.dunyabult ...

, an alleged group within the

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

military said to be linked to the Ergenekon organization.

Today's Zaman ''Today's Zaman'' (Zaman is Turkish for 'time' or 'age') was an English-language daily newspaper based in Turkey. Established on 17 January 2007, it was the English-language edition of the Turkish daily '' Zaman.'' ''Today's Zaman'' included dom ...

, 1 June 2012
Ex-PKK commander Sakık blames military junta for deaths of 33 soldiers
Other witnesses to the

Ergenekon trials The Ergenekon trials were a series of high-profile trials which took place on 2008–2016 in Turkey in which 275 people, including military officers, journalists and opposition lawmakers, all alleged members of Ergenekon, a suspected secularist ...

have also said that Aydın was assassinated by Ergenekon - possibly by PKK informants working with JITEM. Aydın was one of those who believed the "Kurdish question" could not be solved by force, and needed a peaceful solution with economic and social measures. In 2013 Diyarbakir prosecutors asked the local Gendarmerie for the original 1994 document allegedly containing testimony from an unnamed PKK suspect admitting to the assassination of Aydın. The Gendarmerie said that no such document or testimony could be found in its records, although a copy of part of the alleged testimony had been sent to a parliamentary commission in 1994. In October 2013 a prosecutor indicted two retired military officers, saying that there was no evidence of PKK involvement.''

'', 27 October 2013
Innocent man in jail for 18 years for murder of army commander

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aydin, Bahtiyar 1946 births 1993 deaths Turkish Army generals Assassinated Turkish people People from Piraziz Turkish Gendarmerie personnel Deaths by firearm in Turkey