Macedonian Press Agency - Mon, 11 Jan 1999

THE ARREST OF HALUK KIRTZI WILL SHED LIGHT ON UNRESOLVED

CRIMES - HE HAD CONFESSED THAT TURKS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE

FOREST FIRES IN GREECE

The arrest of wanted criminal and member of the "Gray Wolves"

terrorist organization, Haluk Kirtzi, who had revealed in a

telephone communication with a Turkish TV channel after the

Susurluk scandal that members of Turkish parastate organizations

are responsible for the forest fires in Greece, will shed light on

a number of unresolved crimes which shocked Turkey in the past

twenty years in which the Turkish Mafia was involved.

Kirtzi, who had been released from prison "by mistake", was

arrested again yesterday by the Turkish police in his house at

Istanbul's Pedik suburb.

He had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of

7 leftists which he had committed together with other 9

nationalists in Istanbul on October 9,1978. Kirtzi is also

involved in the murder of Kemal Turkler, chairman of the Maden Is

workers union which was committed 2 months before the military

coup of September 12, 1980.

Kirtzi's name surfaced again on November 3, 1996 with the

Susurluk traffic accident which led to revelations on the state-

Mafia connection scandal. Kirtzi allegedly was in the car with the

bodyguards of Turkish parliament deputy Sedat Butzak. In Butzak's

car, which collided with a truck, were also top Mafia man Abdullah

Catli, a high-ranking police officer and a former beauty Queen.

The only survivor of the crash was Butzak himself.

Macedonian Press Agency