Bomb order given by governor, says Çelik

KONYA - Anatolia News Agency

Hüseyin Çelik. DHA photo

Hüseyin Çelik, the deputy chairman and spokesman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said a bomb placed in his room at university in 1995 with the order of the city’s governor at the time. 

“Some of the basic reasons for our failure in the past are the gangs within the state and terrorist mechanisms which carry out illegal activities by using the state force,” Çelik told reporters yesterday in Konya. “These mechanisms are evident in the Ergenekon case now.” Çelik recalled his own experience.

 “In 1995, a bomb was placed in my room at the university. Fortunately, nothing happened. I tried for days to learn what was happening. At last, the authorities said, ‘Don’t mess with this, you may get into trouble.’ What does this mean? How can you explain such a situation? I am confessing this for the first time here: The Chief of Police of that time said: ‘I don’t know how to say it, but the bomb order was given by the governor.’ Turkey has experienced such events. You see that it is not certain where terrorism can appear.” 

The Van governor at the time of the incident was Mahmut Yılbaş, who later became a lawmaker on the ranks of the True Path Party (DYP), led by former prime minister Tansu Çiller. Yılbaş resigned from the DYP in 1998 and switched to Democratic Turkey Party (DTP), formed by dissidents within the DYP. Yılbaş was accused various times of using illegal methods in the fight against terrorism, but was never legally charged or probed.