Ecevit: Any Deliberate Acts in Evcil Case Will be Exposed

Commenting on the recent capture in Bursa of businessman Erol Evcil, the prime suspect in the assassination of "moneylender" Nesim Malki, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said, "If there has been anything deliberate, this will come to light sooner or later," reported the Anatolia news agency on Friday.

Ecevit gave that answer when reporters asked him to comment on press speculation to the effect that if Evcil spent the last 10 months in hiding in Bursa, somebody must have protected him and that the provincial governor and the local police chief may have neglected their duty.

In his reply Ecevit said that was an issue which concerned the Interior Ministry. Stressing that Interior Minister Sadettin Tantan is a person who knows the ministry staff well, Ecevit said: "So if there has been any deliberate act [of neglect], this will come to light sooner or later. The important thing is that Erol Evcil has been caught."

The prime minister told reporters: "Since the time of the 55th government the state departments' efficiency in capturing criminals has been increasing. Certain circles do not want to see that. Yet, it is a fact that through coordination among the security and intelligence organizations the effectiveness of our state has been increased quite significantly in this regard."

[Meanwhile, in Bursa, the province's police chief AydIn Genç made a statement to the press along the lines of: "When I said Evcil had been hiding in Bursa over the last 10 months, I did not intend to cast doubts o anybody. I will not issue any statements until the end of the investigation. Evcil's interrogation is continuing, and anything outside my disclosures is a lie." Genç denied press reports about "Evcil's confessions."]

Fethullah Gülen

One reporter asked Ecevit to comment on press reports according to which the Prime Ministry Monitoring Board presented to the National Security Council (MGK) a report on Fethullah Gülen's schools. His reply was: "No, a report involving all privately owned schools has been prepared. It is not about a certain establishment or a certain group."

Republic Day ceremonies

In reply to another question, the prime minister indicated that the decision not to mark Republic Day with wide-scale ceremonies this year because of the quake was in line with a General Staff suggestion to this effects. 1999-03-10 00:00:00