Kurdish Hezbollah

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Hezbollah (English: Party of God), also known as Turkey's Hezbollah, Kurdish Hezbollah (Kurdish: Hizbullahî Kurdî) or Hezbollah Community is a Kurdish, Sunni Islamist militant organization that conducts most of its activities in Turkey. The organization, which has committed violent acts in the past, has focused on non-violent activities since the 2000s. Contrary to the similarity of names, there is no direct relationship between Hezbollah in Turkey and Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to Turkish security officials, Hezbollah was financed by and trained in post-revolutionary Iran, with Iran allegedly using terror groups to establish Islamic governments throughout the Middle East.

The group, founded by Hüseyin Velioğlu, remains a primarily Kurdish group that has its roots in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey and among Kurds who migrated to the cities in Western Turkey. The Kurdish Hezbollah began shifting increasingly towards Kurdish nationalism during Velioğlu's final years, and after Velioğlu's death, under İsa Altsoy's leadership, they disarmed and began focusing on charity work for the Kurdish population under various organizations. The Hezbollah reestablished in 2003 in southeastern Turkey and "today its ideology might be more widespread then ever among Kurds there". Kurdish Hezbollah's influence was not limited to Turkey and it has also "left an imprint on Turkish Kurds in Germany." The Kurdish Hezbollah is closely affiliated with the Free Cause Party (HÜDA PAR).

The organization had torture houses where they tortured and killed people for days using the hogtie technique, buried them, and recorded these actions.

History

The organization began to form in 1979-1980 with meetings at the Vahdet bookstore in Diyarbakır . The meetings at this bookstore owned by Abdulvahap Ekinci were organized by Fidan Güngör and Hüseyin Velioğlu . In 1981, Fidan Güngör founded the Menzil bookstore, while in 1982 Hüseyin Velioğlu founded the İlim bookstore. The organization, founded in 1979, continued its activities by meeting at these bookstores until 1987. When Hüseyin Velioğlu moved the İlim bookstore to Batman in 1987 , the organization split into two branches as a result of different ideas on leadership and militant activities. The İlim branch, led by Velioğlu, was of the opinion that they should immediately start armed activities. The disagreements resulted in bloody clashes between the two groups.

After the İlim and Menzil groups, the Davet group was also formed by Hilmi Kocaaslan, known as Hezbollah Hakverdi in his own circle, and began to establish cadres in Malatya. The Davet group, which was monitored by security forces, had disagreements with the İlim and Menzil groups and suffered losses in the clashes. The Davet group began its propaganda with the "Islami Davet" magazine in 1990, but the magazine later ceased publication due to economic reasons. This faction, which emphasizes the common aspects of Said Nursi and Ruhollah Khomeini and claims that Said Nursi "heralded" the Islamic Revolution in Iran , has shown complete loyalty to Iran and its policies.

The organization, allegedly collected money from tradesmen and the public under the name of zakat and fitra. Although the Kurdish Sunni Islamist organization focused its violence and murder on the PKK , it also targeted security forces and those it considered immoral (those who drank alcohol, wore miniskirts, etc.). In 1992, Halit Güngen, the Diyarbakır representative of 2000'e Doğru magazine, was killed by Hezbollah members. Two days before his killing , 2000'e Doğru had published a cover with the headline "Hezbollah is Being Trained at the Rapid Response Force Center." Hezbollah members, however, denied the allegations that the organization received state support and said that they found these allegations "ridiculous."

Although Hezbollah, like the Gülen Community, comes from a Nurcu tradition, it has always kept its distance from the Fethullahists and has been in conflict with them. The strong belief that the police officers involved in operations against Hezbollah are close to the Gülen Community has been decisive in Hezbollah's skepticism of this movement. The Gülen Community's media outlets have been publishing against Hezbollah, and Hezbollah has been criticizing the Gülen Community for "trying to please the regime." The revelation that the Zehra Foundation Chairman İzzettin Yıldırım was killed by Hezbollah has drawn the reaction of the Nurcus.

Trials

After the kidnapping of several businessmen in Istanbul and the subsequent raid of a house in Beykoz quarter a nationwide hunt on Hezbollah supporters followed. During the operation in Beykoz on 17 January 2000 Hüseyin Velioğlu was killed and Edip Gümüş and Cemal Tutar were detained. Edip Gümüş, born 1958 in Batman was alleged to lead the military wing of Hezbollah and Cemal Tutar was said to be a member of the armed wing. In this period nearly 6000 KH members were arrested.

In the time to follow many trials were conducted in Diyarbakır and other places against alleged members of Hezbollah. In several instances defendants raised torture allegations. Such allegations are documented in Urgent Actions (UA) of Amnesty International. In the trial in which Edip Gümüş and Cemal Tutar were indicted the defendant Fahrettin Özdemir said on 10 July 2000 that he had been held in custody for 59 days and had been tortured. In the hearing of 11 September 2000 Cemal Tutar said that he had been held in police custody for 180 days.

The Turkish Hezbollah trial was concluded in December 2009. The defendants received varying terms of imprisonment.

Eighteen members of Turkish Hezbollah, amongst them Edip Gümüs and Cemal Tutar, were released from jail on 4 January 2011, in accordance with a recent amendment to the Turkish criminal code that set a limit of 10 years on the time detainees can be held without being sentenced in a final verdict. The juridic authorities demanded a re-arrest of the released, but the police failed in locating them.