Levent Ersöz (born 19 April 1954) is a former Turkey brigadier general in the

Turkish Gendarmerie The Gendarmerie General Command ( tr, Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı) is the national Gendarmerie force of the Republic of Turkey. It is a service branch of the Turkish Ministry of Interior responsible for the maintenance of the public order in a ...

, who was head of the Gendarmerie's

JITEM Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele or Jandarma İstihbarat Teşkilatı (abbr. ''JİTEM'' or ''JİT''; English: "Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism" or "Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization") is the unofficial and illegal intel ...

intelligence department. He was considered a key defendant in 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 ...

, and on 5 August 2013 was sentenced to 22 years and six months. He was released on 11 March 2014. A trial charging Ersöz with the death of Turkish President

Turgut Özal Halil Turgut Özal (; 13 October 192717 April 1993) was a Turkish politician, who served as the 8th President of Turkey from 1989 to 1993. He previously served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey from 1983 to 1989 as the leader of the Mothe ...

in 1993 began in September 2013. Ersöz was found innocent and received an amnesty in March 2016. Prosecutors have accused Ersöz of being behind the 2001 assassination of Diyarbakır Police Chief

Gaffar Okkan Ali Gaffar Okkan (1952 – January 24, 2001) was a Turkish police chief who was assassinated in an ambush in Diyarbakır, southeastern Turkey. Early life Ali Gaffar Okkan was born in Hendek, Sakarya Province in 1952. He graduated from Police Col ...

and a 2006 attack on

Faruk Çelik Faruk Çelik (born 17 January 1956) is a Turkish politician and a Member of Parliament for Bursa ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative ...

, and of having had a role in the 1993 death of President

. The prosecution has shown a video of Ersöz talking to Bedrettin Dalan in 2004, saying "You are number three. Why don't you go out and talk like you're number one."

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 May 2009
Dalan was Ergenekon’s number three, says prosecution
Police searching Ersöz' home had found nearly 2500 recordings of conversations. Prosecutors have charged a hitman with a December 2009 attempt on Ersöz' life, describing it as an attempt to silence Ersöz. Shots were fired into the ceiling during a confrontation between the would-be assassin and gendarmes guarding Ersöz' room.

, 14 January 2010
Probe into Ersöz assassination attempt deepens
A suspect in the Ergenekon trials told prosecutors that Ersöz was his instructor in TUSHAD.

, 18 October 2012
Zirve massacre suspect: Ergenekon's armed wing still active

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ersoz, Levent 1954 births Turkish Army generals Turkish Gendarmerie personnel Living people JİTEM personnel People convicted in the Ergenekon trials