Embassy of the United States

Istanbul
July 15, 2008

GULER: Yes, esteemed members of the press and television,

The Consul General of the United States, Mrs. Sharon Wiener, has paid us a visit to offer her condolences for the unfortunate incident that took place last week in front of the Consulate of the United States, which sadly resulted in the death of three valuable members of our police force, as well as the wounding of one other police officer and a civilian official. I would like to thank her for this visit. Naturally, the pain brought on by this event is still fresh in our hearts. I pray that God has mercy on our deceased sons. I wish a speedy recovery for the wounded. The investigation is not yet finished. Presently, there are suspects who are being questioned under custody. But we are closely monitoring, tracking this event, with all its dimensions. I sincerely hope that we never live through another such an incident again. And I thank the Consul General for this condolence visit.

WIENER: Thank you very much Sayın Vali. Çok teşekkür ederim. I have come today, as he said, to once again say “başınız sağolsun” over the very sad event of three very brave Turkish police officers having lost their lives doing their duty to protect the U.S. Consulate. We very much appreciate the role that the Turkish police and security forces play in protecting our Consulate, and it is a very sad day when three lose their lives and two others are injured. The cooperation between Turkish security forces and our security forces has always been very good, and it was heartening to see on that day that both the Turkish security forces and American security forces did their job and did it very well. And we very much appreciated the reaction after the attack from the Turkish police and from all levels of the Turkish government. We particularly appreciated the statement that President Gul made condemning this terrorist attack. I think it’s important to keep the focus on the fact this was a terrorist attack, and I think our reaction has shown that we are not going to let terrorists deter us from doing our work and this has only led to closer cooperation between Turkey and the United States in fighting terrorism as we have close cooperation on so many other issues. Again, I would like to say to the Governor, thank you very much for everything you have done to help us and I know we’ll do together in the future. And once again, başınız sağolsun.

GULER: Thank you Consul General. My colleagues have truly carried out their duties heroically, sacrificing their lives in the process. Along with our sadness for their loss, we feel great pride in our Police Force. Naturally, we deeply share their families’ sorrow. We have witnessed the reactions of our President, our Prime Minister, our Minister of the Interior, all of the people of Istanbul, civil society and the political parties to this event. Everyone has taken a determined stand against terrorism. Likewise, the President of the United States, Mr. George Bush, has expressed similar sentiments in the message he sent to our President. I would like to thank both the Ambassador [Wilson], yourself and other Consulate officials for your sensitivity in this matter. You have visited our wounded officers, you have shared our sorrow by visiting our Chief of Police, you have emphasized the cooperation between us. I thank you.

Any questions?

QUESTION: Mr. Governor, the connection with Al-Qaida [inaudable]…

GULER: From the very start, our investigations had been concentrated on those kinds of radical organizations. We’ve already received information indicating that one of the attackers has received training in a radical organization camp abroad. Again, another person who has participated in similar trainings has also been identified, and he is currently being questioned under custody. Of course, we are definitely looking into the possibilites of their having other connections.

QUESTION: How many suspects are there under custody at this moment?

GULER: Presently we have 2 suspects under custody and they will be taken to court in due process.

QUESTION: The 4th person, cab driver that escaped [inaudable]… it’s been expressed that he said he didn’t know too much in his statement.

GULER: Well, he insisted that he’d been taken to the crime scene at gunpoint. The prosecutor’s office has sent him for arrest. But the judge did not feel an arrest was necessary. Of course, it’s a judicial decision, we must show respect. Obviously, the judiciary verdict is what counts in the end.

QUESTION: Mr. Governor, there are some allegations… [inaudable]… were visited by some public officials on the day of the incident [inaudable]… Do you have any information about this?

GULER: I don’t have any information on that, but we’ll look into it immediately. It is unthinkable any public official would pay such a visit. I’m sure that my colleagues have investigated those dimensions, but I don’t think that’s possible. But I will seriously examine these various allegations.

QUESTION: We have a question for the Consul General. Will you make any kind of contribution to help the families of the victims?

WIENER: I don’t want to get into any details now, but certainly this is something that we are looking at the ways of doing this.

GULER: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make a statement regarding this subject. There have been differring news on various publications, the media. First of all, here’s what I have to say: The Republic of Turkey is a strong enough nation to take care of its fallen, injured officials in an institutionalized manner. The provisions of the Cash Indemnity Law under the “Prevention of Terrorism Act” specify the relevant indemnity for public officials who lose their lives while they are performing their public duties – even if they have been in public service for only one day. In fact, this is not only for public servants; there are even provisions for civilian citizens who fall victim to acts of terrorism. Therefore, the injured policemen themselves, and the families of those who lost their lives – and one of them had been serving as a policeman for 14 days – will definitely receive compensation. Another issue, for which I would like to express my gratitude, is that many non-governmental organizations and benevolent citizens have called us, and have stated that they would like to be of help. And our National Police Force has opened a joint bank account at the Vakifbank Vatan Caddesi branch. We will distribute the money that is collected there equally among the families of the deceased officers. We accept this as an honorable duty and I would like to express my gratitude to all my countrymen who have shown their concern.

QUESTION: Mr. Governor, are the injured police officer and the driver of the towtruck under any protection right now?

GULER: Of course. In fact, one of the injured is a police officer. Naturally, all necessary protective measures will be taken.

QUESTION: I have a question for the Consul General. What did they share with the injured police officer when she visited him? Because he has said that he tried to force the door but could not get in, that he had some trouble with that. I would like to know what they talked about.

WIENER: Again, I don’t want to get into the details of our security arrangements, but there are internationally agreed-to procedures for how to best protect diplomatic premises like the Consulate. And one of the protocols we have is, when there is an attack against – and this is not just us, other people do this the same way – when there is an attack, there is an automatic closing of the doors to make sure that there is the greatest protection for the greatest number of people, to avoid opening doors and letting additional terrorists come in. And all of the normal procedures, the appropriate procedures, were followed that day – that as soon as the attack happened, the alarms were sounded and the doors were closed. There were several people from the Consulate staff itself who were also outside the doors at that time. They understand that those are the rules and that is the way to protect the greatest number of people who were inside. And most of the people who were inside were in fact Turkish. I mean, most of the people who work in the Consulate are Turkish and we also had a large number of visa applicants who were inside the Consulate at the time. At the same time, ambulances were called, and they arrived on the scene very quickly. And I would just add that these are security procedures that have been coordinated with Turkish security officials. They are well aware of the security procedures and we all understand that that’s the appropriate way to deal with that kind of an incident.

GULER: Any other questions?

QUESTION: Did the security staff left outside the Consulate intervene during the incident? And what did they talk about during the visit with the police officer?

GULER: Ask about the visit.

QUESTION: During your visit to the injured policeman, what did [inaudible], what did you talk to him about?

WIENER: When I visited the injured policeman, as well as the other – the injured driver, I – first of all, I expressed my condolences to them for having lost three of their colleagues. I also thanked them very much for what they had done for us, in terms of protection, and told them that as far as we’re concerned, they’re real heroes. Particularly the police officer is, as I said, he’s a gerçek kahraman. And I talked to their families as well, and thanked them very much on behalf of all of us for the great service they have done.

QUESTION: Can I have the latest developments about the operations?

GULER: Yes, as I have stated to my friends here: Currently there are 12 people under custody. Ten of these, in groups of four and six, have been sent to court. One has been put under arrest, and currently two are undergoing interrogation. In the coming days, our colleagues will continue the search for suspects according to the interrogations .

QUESTION: A short while ago there was a question. Actually … [Inaudable]… there are allegations that some public officials have been coming and going. According to these allegations, there are rumours that this incident has something to do with another issue that is on the agenda right now.

GULER: I will reevaluate these allegations with my colleagues shortly. If there is such an allegation, it should have been taken into consideration by my colleagues already. But I will do the necessary investigation immediately, based on your statement. Do you mean that some public servants were in the area before the incident?

QUESTION: Let me state it more clearly: There some newspapers are claiming that the incident is tied up with Ergenekon…

GULER: My dear friends, there have been many speculations about this subject, but you must trust our statements. We have already stated that this event does not have that kind of a dimension. The Consul General just told you, and so did I; this attack was probably undertaken without giving any consideration to the protection and the physical protective measures that apply there. The fact that the attack was directly aimed at our policemen first led us to think that this is an attack against the Turkish Police. If you consider the actions they might have taken once they got past that point, it is not very difficult to predict what would happen under those physical conditions, those protective measures. That is why we perceive this as a direct attack against the police. Because, as you and the public can easily see, there is not much they could do to the American Consulate once they get past that point, faced with all those physical protective measures.

QUESTION: [inaudable]… consider this amateur attack, do you not take the Al Qaida possibilty into account?

GULER: It’s not that I don’t take that organization into account, but the preparations for this attack, the weapons that were used and the way the incident unfolded naturally bring to mind the possiblities that you refer to.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you all.