TEHRAN SILENT ON CRACK-DOWN OF TURKISH HEZBOLLAH PARTY
ISTABNUL 20th Jan. (IPS) As the staunchly secular Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran were trying hard to bury the calumet and smoke the pipe of peace, the crack-down of the Iran-backed Hezbollah Party of Turkey and the subsequent discovery of a "horror house" in Istanbul were Islamist militants had entombed at least 15 bodies, bound hand and foot, strangled and left in a coal bin in a garden, is likely to dash hopes for improving relations between the two neighbours.
The bodies, believed to be those of abducted moderate Islamist businessmen, were found after police questioned two senior members of the terrorist group captured following a shootout in Istanbul on Monday.
The Turkish Hezbollah is not related to the Lebanese organisation of the same name that fights Israel in South Lebanon, but experts says both are backed by the neighbouring Islamic Republic of Iran.
Police said they suspected the victims, who had been missing for weeks, were kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah for supporting rival Islamic factions.
The businessmen were all connected to an Islamic charity group and disappeared after allegedly leaving for meetings with members of Hezbollah.
Mehmet Farac, an expert on radical Islamic groups, said Hezbollah, or party of God, typically punishes its opponents by kidnapping and putting them to death after a trial.
This is exactly the method used by official agents of the Intelligence Ministry of the Islamic Republic against political and intellectual dissidents.
In recent months, police have been cracking down on Hezbollah, which draws its support from poorly educated rural Kurds and is believed responsible for hundreds of killings in Turkey.
In the Monday raid on the Hezbollah Head Quarters in the suburb of Istanbul, police killed the organisation's leader Huseyin Velioglu and captured two of his aides, Jelal Aidin, the commander of the Hezbollah's armed branch and Edib Gomus, responsible for the Istanbul region
Police discovered heavy machine guns, hand grenades and dynamite at the house, reports said.
Suleyman Ekizer, head of the police anti-terror department, said Velioglu and his two aides were trained in Iran from where he had entered Turkey two months ago.
As the incidents coincided with the visit to Turkey by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, who arrived in the country on Monday, some sources speculated that the shootout at the Turkish Hezbollah Party was timed deliberately with the visit.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi denied that Tehran supports the Turkish Hezbollah, describing the allegations as "claims without proof," the private NTV television quoted him as saying.
Diplomatic sources said the shootout and the killing of the Hezbollah leader were brought by the Turkish side to the attention of the visiting Iranian Minister, himself a devout Muslim
On his return from Turkey on Thursday, Kharrazi said his visit was ''highly constructive and positive'' that would open "a new era" in relations between Tehran and Ankara.
Though Kharrazi rejected the presence of Turkish Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) peshmergas in Iran, however he remained silence as to the smashing of the Turkish Hezbollah and Turkish accusations that the leaders of the terrorist organisations were trained in Iran and backed by the Islamic Republic.
The same, the Iranian state-controlled media that usually reacts quickly and ferociously to such accusations is also silent on the subject.
Turkish authorities say Hizbollah aims to replace the secular republic with an Iranian-style Islamic state. They have blamed the organisation for a number of shootings and bombings in the Southeast where the organisation enjoys the support of about 2000 armed militant.
The Turkish Hezbollah has been spreading out from Iran since 1979, and has been trying to set up a structure in Turkey since 1983, Turkish sources pointed out.
The particular feature of Hezbollah that distinguishes it from others is that its members kill the people they kidnap immediately. The corpses are seldom found since concrete is then poured over them, the sources added. ENDS TURKISH HEZBOLLAH 20100