Abdullah Çatlı Abdullah Çatlı ( 1956 – 3 November 1996 ) was a convicted Turkish drug trafficker , and contract killer for the Counter - Guerrilla . He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party ( MHP ) during the 1970s . His death in the Susurluk car crash , while travelling in a car with state officials revealed the depth of the state ' s complicity in organized crime , in what became known as the Susurluk scandal . He was a hit man for the state , ordered to kill suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers Party ( PKK ) and the ASALA . Career . Growing up in Nevşehir , a small province in Central Anatolia , Çatlı was familiar with the views of the far right MHP , and Turkish ultra - nationalists , which were strong in this area . 1978 - 1984 . Çatlı was responsible , along with Haluk Kırcı and several other MHP members , for the 9 October 1978 Bahçelievler Massacre in which seven university students , members of the Workers Party of Turkey ( TIP ) , were murdered . He is also said to have helped Mehmet Ali Ağca murder the left - wing newspaper editor Abdi İpekçi on 1 January 1979 , in Istanbul , and helped Ağca escape from an Istanbul military prison , in 1979 . According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar , Abdullah Çatlı " reportedly helped organize Agca ' s escape from an Istanbul military prison , and some have suggested Catli was even involved in the 1981 Pope ' s assassination attempt " . In 1998 the magazine " Monde diplomatique " alleged that Abdullah Çatlı had organized the assassination attempt " in exchange for the sum of 3 million German mark " for the Grey Wolves . In 1985 in Rome , Catli declared to a judge " that he had been contacted by the BND , the German intelligence agency , promised him a nice sum of money if he implicated the Russian and Bulgarian services in the assassination attempt against the Pope " . Çatlı was seen in the company of Stefano Delle Chiaie , an Italian neofascist who worked for Gladio , a secret NATO stay - behind paramilitary organization , while " touring Latin America , and on a visit to Miami in September 1982 " . He then went to France , where , under the alias of Hasan Kurtoglu , he planned a series of attacks on Armenian interests and on the ASALA , including the blowing up of the Armenian monument at Alfortville on 3 May 1984 and the attempted murder of activist Ara Toranian . According to founding Counter - Guerrilla Alparslan Türkeş , the founder of the Grey Wolves , " Çatlı has co - operated in the frame of a secret service working for the well - being of the state " . 1984 - 1996 . Turkish intelligence service ( MIT ) paid Çatli in heroin , and he was eventually arrested in Paris on 24 October 1984 for drug trafficking . He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and in 1988 he was handed over to Switzerland , where he was also wanted on charges of drug dealing . However , he escaped in March 1990 with the assistance of mysterious accomplices . He returned to Turkey , and was then recruited by the police for " special missions " while he was officially being sought by the Turkish authorities for murder . Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller declared on 4 October 1993 : " We know the list of businessmen and artists subjected to racketeering by the PKK and we shall be bringing their members to account . " Beginning on 14 January 1994 , almost a hundred people were kidnapped by commandos wearing uniforms and travelling in police vehicles and then killed somewhere along the road from Ankara to Istanbul . Çatli demanded money from people who were on " Çiller ’ s list " , promising to get their names removed . One of his victims , Behçet Cantürk , was to pay ten million dollars , to which Casino King Omer Luftu Topal added a further seventeen million . However , after receiving the money , he then went on to have them kidnapped and killed , and sometimes tortured beforehand . According to Mehmet Eymür , a team led by Çatlı was responsible for the 1995 deaths of Iranian spies Lazım Esmaeili and Askar Simitko . Çatlı ' s fingerprint was also allegedly found on the drum of one of the machine guns used to assassinate casino king Ömer Lütfü Topal . In 1996 Çatlı twice kidnapped Mehmet Ali Yaprak . Death . Çatlı died in a car accident on 3 November 1996 in Susurluk , a town in the province of Balıkesir . With him in the car were Hüseyin Kocadağ ( a famous police officer ) , Sedat Bucak ( a Member of Parliament of the True Path Party ( DYP ) for Şanlıurfa province ) , and Gonca Us ( Abdullah Çatlı ' s girlfriend ) . Sedat Bucak , a Kurdish village guards leader , was the sole person to survive the crash . His militia , funded by the Turkish state , was active against the PKK . The Susurluk scandal exposed the " deep state " ; the underbelly of the government that some had dismissed as a paranoid conspiracy theory . At the time of his death , Çatlı was a convicted fugitive , who had been wanted for drug trafficking and murder . The mafia chiefs of the Grey Wolves , and its infamous hit man Mehmet Ali Ağca , paid tribute at his funeral by presenting wreaths , as is traditional in Turkey . Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu of the far right Great Union Party was also present . Bibliography . His daughter Gökçen wrote a biography , referring to diaries stretching back ten years , in order to correct alleged inaccuracies that were circulated after his death . Gökçen said " My father had his own understanding of justice . He was trying to achieve this justice with his group on behalf of his nation . " Another book was written by Soner Yalçın and Doğan Yurdakul , titled " Reis : Gladio ' nun Türk Tetikçisi " ( " The Chief : Gladio ' s Turkish Hitman " ) . Personal life . Çatlı ' s father was Ahmet Çatlıoğlu ; the " - oğlu " suffix is a patronymic . Çatlı had a brother , Zeki . Abdullah Çatlı married his neighbor Meral Aydoğan on 10 August 1974 . On 22 May 1975 , they had a daughter named Gökçen , who is currently a doctoral student in politics and international relations . Later he had another daughter , Selcen .