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Wild tales from a Turkish whistleblower

Tuncay Guney lives in Willowdale and tells wild tales of international intrigue. Two things are certain: The Turks want answers, and a lot of people are furious.

Tuncay Guney, at Yonge St. and Finch Ave. on Jan. 8, 2009, is believed to harbour key evidence in a trial involving a plot to overthrow the Turkish government.

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Standing at the entrance to a north Toronto office tower, Tuncay Guney extends a delicate hand and introduces himself: "You are now talking to the most famous agent in the world."

Speaking through a translator, his tone is sardonic. But he lays out a pretty fair case.

The 36-year-old Turkish refugee claimant and former journalist goes on to describe meetings with Hezbollah chieftains and U.S. senators, a near escape from Turkish intelligence in the company of an Iranian general, close friendships with Kurdish rebel leaders and Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.

"James Bond has nothing on me," Guney said. He's joking again. Sort of.



According to Turkish prosecutors, the labyrinthine ultranationalist cabal, code-named `Ergenekon', backed political assassinations and deadly terrorist attacks.

All the threads lead back to information provided eight years ago by Guney. He continues to launch verbal bombs from Toronto, appearing regularly via satellite on Turkish television .

This week, Turkish court officials released a list of 37 questions they want Guney to answer about Ergenekon. Did they conspire with separatist Kurdish rebels? Who did they kill? What is their relationship to international drug gangs?

"I am the `black box' of Ergenekon," Guney said, referencing one of his nicknames in the Turkish press. "They cannot solve anything until they reach me."

His standing among fellow expatriates is less lofty.

"Speaking as a member of the community, we are embarrassed that he lives in Canada among us," said Lale Eskicioglu, executive director of the Ottawa-based Council of Turkish Canadians. "Because of him, many innocent people have been interrogated. He has caused a lot of hell in Turkey."


Guney claims he was tortured during questioning. "I told myself, I would get my revenge some day."


"He got so much information that he cannot have gotten it by himself," said Ergun Babahan, a former editor of the Turkish newspaper, Sabah. "Someone gave it to him."

Despite a travel ban, Guney was mysteriously able to flee Turkey for the United States. "He went from Turkey to New York and then Toronto. That is not so easy to do," said Babahan. "I believe he has some sort of protection."


Guney's files lay dormant until 2007, by which time the AK Party had won power. Then a raid on the house of a former military official turned up explosives that were later linked to an attack at a Turkish newspaper.

The arms seizure pulled the first thread that unravelled the alleged Ergenekon plot. As police investigated, they found Guney had already provided a road map of Ergenekon. Involving high-ranking military officials, businesspeople, gangsters and journalists, the conspiracy appeared to unmask what the Turks call the "deep state" – the real power hidden behind governments.

The Ergenekon plotters stand accused of a dizzying variety of crimes, all aimed at unhinging the government and prompting a military-backed coup.

Housed in a prison complex on Istanbul's fringes, the trial against 86 Ergenekon defendants began in October. In one of many ironic twists of the case, one of the accused is the police official Guney said is responsible for his torture.

The trial is expected to stretch beyond 2009. Yesterday, the country's army chief expressed his anger at the recent detention of a dozen top military officials, part of a new round-up of suspects that took place on Wednesday.

"There's a lot of political fantasizing that goes on here at the best of times," said Andrew Finkel, an Istanbul-based American journalist. "(Ergenekon) is stirring that pot. Now it's as if everything that's ever happened in Turkey is part of that conspiracy."

Guney arrived in Toronto in 2004, forced to flee New York, he said, by a visit from an Ergenekon-linked Turkish general.

Today, he lives with a roommate in a small house on a busy Willowdale street. He presented a photocopy of a document that he says proves he was granted refugee status last August. As is usual in these cases, the Immigration and Refugee Board would not comment.

He is unemployed. Right now, he supports himself with credit cards and "my gold and diamonds."

In conversation, Guney slips seamlessly from caution to bombast. At one moment, he said he is afraid to walk Toronto's streets. At another, he dares the Turkish government to cross him.

"Believe me, they just play games. Sometimes we play together," Guney said. "They don't have anything. They just want to scare me."


Guney returned several times to the subject of his torture eight years ago, speaking with bitterness.

"I have the advantage, not the government," Guney said. "I will continue this game until my life is over."