Ziverbey Villa


The Ziverbey Villa is a villa in Erenköy, Istanbul which was used as a torture center after the 1971 coup d'état. It was used by the Special Warfare Department and others associated with the Counter-Guerrilla. Those detained were mostly associated with the left; the 12 March 1971 coup was alleged to be a counter-coup against a planned 9 March communist coup.
The mastermind behind Ziverbey interrogations was brigadier general Memduh Ünlütürk, working under lieutenant General Turgut Sunalp, who was reporting to the Commander of First Army, General Faik Türün. The latter two generals were Korean War veterans who had served in the Operations Department. The interrogation techniques they used in Ziverbey were inspired by what they had seen done to Korean and Chinese POWs during the Korean War. Prisoners were bound and blinded.
Intellectuals such as İlhan Selçuk and Uğur Mumcu were tortured there. Several Ziverbey victims confirmed that the interrogators introduced themselves as "Counter-Guerrillas", above the law, and entitled to kill. Under duress to write an apologetic statement, Selçuk famously revealed his plight using a modified acrostic which decrypted to "I am under torture". The key letter was the first of the penultimate word of each sentence in his statement.
Another prisoner, outspoken liberal Murat Belge, says that he was tortured there by Veli Küçük, who later founded JITEM and Hezbollah to counter the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Küçük says he could not be responsible since he was stationed in Şırnak and has been charged with colluding with another Ziverbey victim, İlhan Selçuk.
The activist film director Yılmaz Güney was also present. A friend of his in the MİT had tried to prevent him from being captured by telling his superiors that Güney was also a spy, but the ruse failed. A MİT officer who was present, Mehmet Eymür, said Güney was treated well in return for his co-operation.
General Yamak denied that the Special Warfare Department was involved, and dismissed any notion of a "counter-guerrilla".
Ziverbey is notable for: