Baykal: Heroin Lords Are In Power

He said "Local power centers established in Van, based on drug trafficking."
The incident Baykal referred to was, the escape of heroin smuggler Hamit Bayram, from security premises, by the aid of his tribal men, after being caught red-handed at a heroin deal with security police.

Baykal said "National Education Minister Huseyin Cellik had called (former
deputy) Mustafa Bayram, the father of Hamit, after the incident. When the conversation was made between the two, Van’s Security Director was nearby Mustafa Bayram. However, the Minister should have called the policemen to voce sympathy to them. Interior Minister Aksu had remained a spectator when all these happened. In such a climate with such kind of relations, it is impossible to carry out a healthy investigations.

"Why had not security forces resisted the raid (of the men of Hamit Bayram) ? Why had not a single bullet fired during the incident? The police station of the State had surrendered in this raid. Similar to the train accidents where all the blame was put on two mechanics. The government will put the blame on a few policemen, and close the file.
Baykal said that they will take up this issue at Parliament.

Meanwhile, one of the terrorists who attempted to bomb-raid Van’s governor Hikmet Tan, was killed. The governor had survived a bomb-raid on July 2.