Who is Liviu Turcu?

Born on July 12, 1948, in Galati. Graduated from the Faculty of Sociology in Bucharest. Scientific researcher at the Institute of Studies and Research for Economic Forecasting and assistant at the University of Bucharest. Doctorate in philosophy, in 1977, at the same university. He collaborated in various newspapers and magazines.

In 1976, he was co-opted into the external intelligence service (DIE, later CIE) of the State Security Department, advancing to the rank of major. Initially, it was assigned to the Political-Economic Division, the service for North America (V 2).

He was promoted to head of office, then head of the operative service for the USA/Canada and head of the Western Europe service, the Germany, Austria, Switzerland space group.

He was involved in informative-operative activities in the political-economic field, under the diplomatic cover of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the USA, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark and in addition to UN international bodies.

In January 1989, while he was on a temporary mission in Vienna, under the guise of a counselor, he decided not to return to Romania and requested political asylum in the USA. He was the last major defector from the Bucharest spy service before the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu's communist dictatorship.

He gave interviews, published articles and studies about the evolution of the totalitarian regime in Romania, was frequently present on the radio and television stations of the BBC, the Canadian CBC television, the French television TV5, the Voice of America and Europa Libera radio stations, as well as and in The Washington Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Liberation and L'Europeo.

The long interview broadcast by the Voice of America during the XIV Congress of the PCR constituted an exceptional series of political analysis of the real situation in Romania.

In the interview published in The Washington Times, in October 1989, Liviu Turcu was the first analyst who predicted in the US media that the change of the regime in Bucharest will be achieved through violent street movements and that Ion Iliescu will be the head of the first regime post-caustic.

He was invited to Boston University, as a James Clin Fellow, to give lectures and participate in a research program on the evolution of communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

According to his own confessions, which reached us in 1999, he left Romania for three reasons. The first was that Nicolae Ceausescu's regime entered into an acute conflict with the fundamental interests of the Romanian state. The situation had worsened following the brutal and incompetent interference of Elena Ceausescu in the coordination of the informative-operative activities.

The second reason was that the intelligence officers were forced to sign a new military oath of loyalty and faith, but not to the Romanian state, but to Nicolae Ceausescu personally.

The third reason was related to the total passivity and obedience of the leadership of the Foreign Information Center in the conditions of increasing isolation of Romania on the international level and its slide towards disaster.

In December 1988, after returning from a mission in Austria, Liviu Turcu reported directly to the head of the CIE, Lieutenant General Aristotel Stamatoiu, information from verified sources in Western political circles: Romania would soon be subject to an unprecedented isolation regime internationally, according to the model applied in the past to South Africa and the state of Chile, during the Pinochet regime.

At the end of the discussion, Liviu Turcu allowed himself to make a carefully prepared observation to probe the real political attitude of his boss: "We should also do something to avoid a complete disaster for Romania".

The general launched into a harsh political tirade against the nonconformist officer, from which it emerged that, for such opinions, Liviu Turcu deserves to be arrested.

Aristotel Stamatoiu's overzealousness in that setup is explained not only by his lack of courage, but also by the fact that they were in a space controlled by the operative technique of UM 0195, an independent unit with counterinformative duties in the Information Center External.

After Liviu Turcu remained abroad, DSS severely searched his home in Bucharest, on February 22, 1989. His wife was arrested and investigated.

On July 11, 1989, Liviu Turcu was sentenced to death and to the total confiscation of his wealth by a panel of judges whose president was the justice colonel Gica Popa - on December 25, 1989, the same colonel sentenced Nicolae Ceausescu to death, then he committed suicide on March 1, 1990.

Immediately after the pronouncement of the sentence, DSS launched intensive informative-operational operations to identify and punish the defector. After the collapse of the communist regime, on October 1, 1990, following the extraordinary appeal of the general prosecutor Gheorghe Robu, the Supreme Court of Justice from Bucharest re-judged the case, and Liviu Turcu was acquitted and restored to his civil rights.

Currently, he is an expert consultant in competitive information in the economic and financial field, for Western companies interested in investing in the former Eastern Europe. He also travels frequently in Romania.

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