The Yüksekova Gang was an illegal organization in the

Yüksekova district Yüksekova District is a district in the Hakkâri Province of Turkey. Its seat is the city Yüksekova. Its area is 2,547 km2 and had a population of 121,969 people in 2023. It borders Iran to the east, and Kurdistan Region of Iraq to the sout ...

Hakkari Province Hakkari or Hakkâri may refer to: *Hakkari (historical region), a historical region in modern-day Turkey and Iraq *Hakkâri (city), a city and the capital of Hakkâri Province, Turkey *Hakkâri Province Hakkâri Province (, ; ), is a province i ...

accused of killing 16 people, with apparent links to the

Turkish Gendarmerie The Gendarmerie General Command () 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 areas that fall outside the jurisdi ...

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 intelligence department of ...

unit and possible links to the

Ergenekon Ergenekon is a Turkish term that may refer to: *The Epic of Ergenekon, the founding myth of Turkic and Mongolic peoples * Necabettin Ergenekon (1926-2020), Turkish officer *Ergenekon, Turkish name of Agios Chariton, a village in Cyprus *Ergenekon ...

organization. According to ''

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 ...

'' it was "headed by three high-ranking military personnel and various politicians ndsmuggled drugs and weapons."Duvakli, Melik
JİTEM’s illegal actions cost Turkey a fortune
''

'', 27 August 2008. Its activities were first revealed in 1996, in the aftermath of the

Susurluk scandal The Susurluk scandal () or Susurluk accident (), was a 1996 political scandal in Turkey that exposed a close relationship between the Turkish government, the ultra-nationalistic paramilitary Grey Wolves (organization), Grey Wolves organization an ...

. Its activities "are only one part of the JİTEM activities" that have been sent to the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

(ECHR). All of the local court prison sentences concerning the Yüksekova Gang were cancelled by the High Court of Appeals of Turkey, leading the ECHR to fine Turkey 103,000 Euro for its decisions about the Yüksekova Gang. The mayor of Yüksekova, Ali Ihsan Zeydan, was arrested in 1997. Hurriyet Daily News, 19 March 1997
Yuksekova mayor arrested
/ref>

Cases

* ECHR
YURTSEVEN AND OTHERS v. TURKEY (Application no. 31730/96)
18 December 2003. Relates to the abduction of three people from the village of Ağaçlı on 27 October 1995, by soldiers belonging to the Yüksekova Commando Battalion under the command of Major Mehmet Emin Yurdakul. Yurdakul and two others were acquitted by a Hakkari court in 1999, and the acquittal was upheld by the Yargıtay court of appeal on 2 April 2001.

References

External links

* Couturier, Kelly,
Security Forces Allegedly Involved in Turkish Criminal Gang
. Washington Post, 27 November 1996 * ''

Aksiyon ''Aksiyon'' () was a Turkish news magazine. The magazine was close to the Gülen movement. It was established by Feza Publications in 1994. In 2008 it was described by its '' Today's Zaman'' sister newspaper as "the most widely read Turkish we ...

'', 19 July 2010
'Yüksekova'da unutulan hukuk!
* ''Zaman'', 29 August 2010

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuksekova Gang Organized crime groups in Turkey Trials in Turkey Far-right politics in Turkey European Court of Human Rights cases involving Turkey JİTEM Anti-communism in Turkey Turkish mafia