Jitem

   The Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counterterrorist (Service) or JITEM (Turkish acronym for Jandarma Istihbarat ve Terorle Mucadele) is reportedly the intelligence service of the Turkish gendarmerie long surreptitiously active in the struggle against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Although this has been officially denied, former Turkish prime ministers Bulent Ecevit and Mesut Yilmaz have affirmed JITEM's existence. During the war against the PKK, JITEM became involved in such extralegal activities as arms and drug smuggling. It was also greatly feared for its counterguer-rilla activities and role in extrajudicial killings. Some even have claimed that JITEM not only fomented infighting in the PKK but also helped keep it operating to provide a rationale for JITEM's own continued existence.

   The first person to write about JITEM was Ayse Onal, a journalist for Aytes magazine, on 2 July 1994. JITEM was apparently established by retired General Veli Kucuk in 1971 and is part of the Deep State or Ergenekon, which illegally enforces ultranationalist interests in Turkey. Kucuk is currently under arrest as part of the Er-genekon investigations. Other JITEM founders include Ahmet Cem Ersever, Arif Dogan, Hasan Kundakci, Huseyin Kara, Hulusi Sayin, and Aytekin Ozen. Among the many reputed victims of JITEM were Ahmet Cem Ersever himself in 1993, gendarmerie forces general Esref Bitlis in 1993, and the famous Kurdish intellectual Musa Anter in 1992.

   See also Hizbullah (Turkey).