Mysterious Excavation in Tarsus: A Door to Other Worlds Found? (Türkiye)

Location: Mersin, Tarsus - Date: November 13, 2016

In 82 Evler Neighborhood of Tarsus District of Mersin Province, 150 square meters of land was excavated in the courtyards of 4 houses for a year under the supervision of MIT and Special Operations police. The mysterious excavations were abruptly ended on November 3, 2017. However, this excavation is very different from a normal archaeological work, a discovery.

Prof. Dr. Murat Durukan, a lecturer at Mersin University, explains why the Tarsus excavation is not an archaeological study:

"If an archaeological work was being done here, two institutions should have been aware of it: the museum and the university. But no one knows about the excavation. I don't think this excavation is an archaeological excavation. Archaeologists conduct archaeological excavations, but we see that security forces are conducting this work there.


The excavation officially lasted for a year and there is neither a single photograph nor a comprehensive and enlightening explanation. Consequently, all public attention was focused on Tarsus for a while.

The story of the excavation actually began long before it hit the media. So what was it that made it so remarkable and turned the spotlight on Tarsus, and where did the threads break?

ZERO POINT IN TARSUS EXCAVATION

The story of the excavation, which has become a hot topic, began with the murder of police officer Mithat Erdal in 2012. According to statements shared with the media in 2016 by Sibel Erdal, the wife of the police officer, Mithat Erdal, a police officer working in the traffic department, infiltrated a treasure gang in 2012, but the focus of this treasure gang was not only on the site of the excavation in question. The murdered police officer, Mithat Erdal, told his wife that they had previously unearthed valuable candlesticks and coins under a house in the Yeşil neighborhood of Tarsus.


In the news that fell to the media from the excavation in question, 7 people were arrested in the illegal excavation operation in the neighborhood in question. Süleyman Karadağlı, one of the people arrested at the time, belongs to one of the well-known families of Tarsus. The family is known for their jewelry business in the past, but Karadağlı is currently a tradesman.

Süleyman Karadağlı, who we learned was a suitor for one of the houses in the famous excavation site years ago, told Cumhuriyet360 about his arrest, "The accusations are baseless, I already had a treasure hunting license. That's where I'm interested in these things," but it turned out that Süleyman Karadağlı also established close relations with the relevant team during the excavation that started in 2016. So much so that the person who supplied the 'daily sacrifices' described by the residents of the neighborhood was Süleyman Karadağlı himself.

Süleyman Karadağlı's statements to the Cumhuriyet360 team on the subject are as follows:

''The excavation team cheated me with various promises, I lost a lot of money. You cannot find out what happened in that excavation, who is involved. For example, do you think the murder of Mithat Erdal was committed by the person who is currently in prison?

''EVERYWHERE IN THE HOUSE WAS EXCAVATED''

The real breaking point that led to the death of police officer Erdal began in 2012 when he rented the house at the street entrance to the courtyard of the famous red house in Tarsus. Emel İpekoğlu, the owner of the house rented in Tarsus, said the following about the process of Mithat Erdal renting the house:

''I inherited the house from my father. My son lived in the house before Mithat Erdal rented it. I met Mithat Erdal through my son. We rented the house when he said he was a police officer and needed the house badly. The rumor that Mithat Erdal died in this house is not true. He was killed on the waterfall road. When I heard the news, I came home and when I entered the house, everything had been dug up. Construction materials were still there. He went to the courtyard from the back window of the house and dug there too.''

UNKNOWNS OF TARSUS EXCAVATION

Let us continue with a point about the excavation that has been misrepresented to the public. It is not true that the excavation only took place in the mysterious red house. There are 3 houses leading to the courtyard in front of the red house. One of these houses is the house rented by Mithat Erdal. The house right next to it is another house where Emel İpekoğlu's daughter-in-law stayed.

There is also a green house next to the house rented by Mithat Erdal. What Nevin Aslan, the owner of this house that leads to the courtyard, tells us about the period when Mithat Erdal rented the house and the excavation carried out under police supervision is quite surprising:

''The house that Mithat Erdal rented was a very neglected, dilapidated, ruined house. In fact, when they told me that a policeman had rented the house, I remember saying, 'Would a policeman live in this house?' It is not possible for a normal person to rent that house. The excavation that started in 2016 ruined us. We became unable to enter our house or look out of its windows. My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter were staying in our house in the excavation area. Our house was also excavated underneath. Every night the electricity was switched off at the same time, and we saw how many times they dug something out of bags. My daughter was unable to stay at home with her family. The situation was so bad that the house started to crack. It was going to collapse with them in it. Then they moved in with us. The house is empty underneath, we know it was dug up. There were a lot of foreigners in the excavation, we couldn't understand what they were saying. We didn't understand what kind of police officer was talking to us. His teeth were missing, his face was very strange. When we asked his name, the only answer we got was: "I am from Earth.

THE KEY FIGURE AT THE TIPPING POINT: POLICE CHIEF YAŞAR AKSOY

According to the claims of his wife Sibel Erdal at the time, Mithat Erdal was assigned by the Security Police to organize operations against illegal excavations. The last job Mithat Erdal was involved in with the house he rented was the one that led to his death.


It is unclear what happened during the illegal excavations in the house rented by Mithat Erdal, but according to his wife's testimony, when Mithat Erdal feared for his life, he went to Yaşar Aksoy, the police chief who had assigned him, and told him that he would tell everything he knew to Ankara. During this process, Mithat Erdal's personal weapon was confiscated for 15 days. Erdal kept his children away from windows and said he was constantly being followed. In 2012, one day after his personal weapon was returned to him, Erdal was shot in the neck with his own gun in a secluded place. The media coverage of this news was as follows: ''A police officer in Mersin's Tarsus district was shot in the head with a gun, allegedly while joking with fellow shopkeepers.''

Hüseyin Yasak, who shot Mithat Erdal, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Apart from the murderer Hüseyin Yasak, 3 other people who were present at the time of the murder were released.

The excavation was triggered by the dismissal of the police officers accused of Erdal's death after the July 15 coup attempt due to alleged links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO) and a letter written by Mithat Erdal's wife Sibel Erdal in 2016. Sibel Erdal, the wife of the deceased police officer, wrote a letter to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2016, demanding that the case be reopened.


At that time, Sibel Erdal said, "My husband was recruited by his managers as an agent among the treasure hunters. They rented this house for excavation. A king's tomb was found at another spot. But the treasure inside was plundered. My husband's superiors were also involved. My husband was killed when he wanted to report the situation to Ankara.


In our 2016 interview in Tarsus, former Police Chief Yaşar Aksoy, who was detained for a while during the operation organized against FETÖ in Mersin Metropolitan Municipality, said that he won the defamation lawsuit he filed against Sibel Erdal's allegations against him and that nothing can be said on the court decision.

''NO ONE BUT THE STATE KNOWS''

Regarding the excavation in question, Aksoy said, "If anyone other than the state says they know what came out of that excavation, they are lying.

Yaşar Aksoy, who came to the agenda with the news that he was in constant contact with FETÖ's district imam and elder brother in the past, was also the person who led the Çatalburun Operations that went all the way to the parliament. In 2008, the operation, which was organized against 82 people, including prominent businessmen of Tarsus, under the name of giving patronage to FETÖ, was later referred to as a 'conspiracy operation'. Aksoy said about the "unlawful wiretaps" in the operation, "I am the one who led the operation, but those wiretaps are within the knowledge of the Public Prosecutor's Office. The news is not true,"

In 2016, 27th term MHP Mersin MP Baki Şimşek made the following statement in the Parliament about the operation in question.

''The police officer who did the wiretapping here has been suspended today due to FETÖ. The prosecutor who prepared the indictment is the prosecutor who stopped the MIT TIRs, he is currently under arrest for FETÖ. The judge who issued the verdict is currently under arrest for FETÖ. Even people who were in the military and in prison at the time, who did not serve the sentences imposed by them, were sentenced to imprisonment.''

"Yaşar Aksoy, who has been the longest serving police chief in Tarsus, was working in the intelligence service of Mersin Provincial Security Directorate before taking the position of police chief."

THE STORY OF THE BEGINNING AND END OF THE MYSTERIOUS EXCAVATION...

After all these processes, on November 13, 2016, a special team, including MIT and Special Operations Police, started working in the area under high-level security measures.

The entrance and exit of the street where the site was located was blocked with armored police vehicles and snipers were placed on rooftops. The excavation site was surrounded with blue tarpaulin and wire mesh so that no one could see it.


The 1-year excavation, which was carried out with utmost secrecy and security efforts, was quietly concluded on November 3, 2017.

At the end of the 1-year excavation, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums sent a letter to Mersin Provincial Directorate of Culture stating the following about the excavation findings

"In the aforementioned report, no movable and immovable cultural assets of inventory quality were found during the excavations in the aforementioned area, except for 1 bronze coin, a broken column fragment, and ceramic sherds in study condition.

In other words, according to the official statement, nothing remarkable was found in this meticulous excavation work, which included great claims.

ENTERING TARSUS: WHAT DID WE SEE AT THE EXCAVATION SITE?

When we finally arrived at the entrance of Tarsus after a long journey, the first thing that greeted us was Cleopatra's Gate, the only surviving structure of Ancient Tarsus. According to legend, the gate, where Queen Cleopatra and the young emperor candidate Roman General Marcus Antony once came to the city, also offers an insight into the Tarsus excavation file. The centuries-old gate, the only remaining structure from the ancient city, is distinguished not only from the red-hot asphalt but also from the present day by the thin paving stones around it. In the midst of the buildings rising around it and the asphalt surrounding it, this gate, absurdly and simply compressed in comparison to its magnificent story, is the clearest expression of why Tarsus has become the center of illegal excavations. Tarsus is caught vulnerably between the past and the present, waiting to be rescued.


There are many mystical stories associated with the excavations in Tarsus: goblins, magical treasures, king's tombs. The starting point of these stories is Tarsus itself. So much so that every step you take, everything you lay your eyes on is history.

Ninety percent of the houses on the street where the Tarsus excavation took place were evacuated after the excavation. The size and depth of the excavation area is much larger than known.So much so that deep cracks appeared inside and outside the houses near the excavation site after the excavation.


The houses around the courtyard where the excavation took place have been demolished or are about to be demolished. As such, it is tragicomic that the state's hand is behind the fact that this area, which has been excavated for a year, has been left like this. Looking at the picture, the question 'Would the state do this' comes to mind. So much so that the traces of the excavated area have not been erased. Inside the houses, excavation materials, used and discarded sim cards, hundreds of plastic cups, clothes were left behind, parquet floors were removed....


Attempts were made to fill the excavated areas, but in vain. A careless step around the houses can lead you to the soil. The water that was continuously piped into the neighborhood for a year due to the excavation gives an impression of how deep the excavation went. Especially the walls of the houses on the front facade have been completely demolished. The skeleton of Mithat Erdal's house is standing with the help of a single plank. The condition of the courtyard is more interesting. An eerie darkness dominates the area. The only signs of life are the citrus trees still bearing fruit in the courtyard.