Blood stains on Gulen’s ‘gloved hands’?

Positive signs are already emerging from Turkey

 Turkey’s government has repeatedly alleged that the deadly coup attempt on July 15, which left at least 246 martyrs and over 2,100 injured, was orchestrated by followers of Fetullah Gulen, whose loyalists run thousands of schools and think-tanks across the globe

Turkey’s government has repeatedly alleged that the deadly coup attempt on July 15, which left at least 246 martyrs and over 2,100 injured, was orchestrated by followers of Fetullah Gulen, whose loyalists run thousands of schools and think-tanks across the globe.

Only in Pakistan, there are around 28 schools being run by a foundation which is alleged to having close links with Gulen, besides a think-tank, Rumi Foundation also linked to the controversial cleric-turned-politician. Fetullah Gulen also owns one of the largest charter schools networks in the US, as the list entails about 140 schools, according to media reports.

Residing in Pennsylvania since 1999, Fetullah Gulen is known as the man who controls these schools and the $500 million annual income he gets for these from the US government, say US media reports.

Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.

While western media reports claim Turkish military was involved in the failed coup bid, the Turkish General Staff has said that a “tiny minority”, just 1.5 percent of the Turkish armed forces took part in the failed coup that claimed hundreds of lives.

“A total of 8,651 military personnel took part in the coup attempt. This figure amounts to 1.5 percent of the current number of Turkish Armed Forces personnel,” said the General Staff’s Press and Public Relations Department in a statement.

It added that 35 planes, 37 helicopters, 74 tanks, and three ships were used during the failed coup. A total of 1,676 non-commissioned officers and soldiers, and 1,214 military students, joined the coup attempt, it said. The coup-plotters used 3,992 small arms during the attempt.

Since the arrests started following the July 15 failed coup, a total of 10,410 people, including 7,423 soldiers, 287 police, 2,014 judges and prosecutors, and 686 civilians have been taken into custody, so far.

Among the 10,410 people, 4,060 of them were arrested, while 5,581 remain in custody. Meanwhile, more than 66,000 people employed in state institutions have been dismissed from their duties amid a nationwide probe into the coup attempt, says Turkish media.

The first evidence that Gulenists were behind the coup attempt was uncovered on the night of the attempt, when Istanbul’s former Security Branch Manager Mithat Aynaci was detained after being caught in a tank dressed in military uniform. Aynaci had been suspended from duty in November 2014 over suspected links to FETO. He was later dismissed.

While many suspects have recorded their statements with prosecutors, the most stirring statement was made by the Turkish army chief, Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar, who told Ankara prosecutors that the coup plotters on the night of the July 15 had held him hostage and asked him to sign a decree for imposition of martial law in the country. This statement could prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back as the general is not considered close to President Erdogan.

Turkish media reports claimed that when General Akar refused to sign the decree, he was asked to speak on the phone with US-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, the accused mastermind of the coup attempt. Testifying as a plaintiff to Ankara prosecutors, Gen Hulusi Akar said while he was held hostage by pro-coup soldiers, Gen Hakan Evrim, the commander of a main jet base, asked him to speak with Gulen.

“Hakan Evrim said they could put me on phone with Fetullah Gulen, who he described as their ‘opinion leader’,” Akar said. “But I refused the offer at once.” But the general did not stop here and he went on to state that he believed those coup-plotters were members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO).

“I think they thought their organisation would take a huge blow after our Supreme Military Council meeting in August — which we prepared for studiously,” Akar told the prosecutors.

In his six paged testimony, Gen Akar stated that near 9pm on the failed coup night, Maj Gen Mehmet Disli entered his room and said something like, “Sir, the operation has begun. We’ll take everyone, the brigades and troops are on their way.”

Akar was partially strangled and handcuffed and taken to Akinci air jet base, northwest of Ankara, to force him to read and sign the coup manifesto which the general refused.

The major confessional statement was submitted by Lt Col Levent Turkkan, the aide of General Hulusi Akar, the main character behind the coup, who admitted having links to the Fetullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO).

In his testimony released July 20, Turkkan said he was a loyal member of the FETO group since his youth.

“I am a member of the parallel state, or FETO. I have served this community for years voluntarily. I have obeyed the orders and instructions of the big brothers exactly,” he confessed before the prosecutors, says Turkish media reports.

“I was spying on [former] Chief of Staff Necdet Ozel all the time. I put a recording device in the room in the morning and took it back in the evening hours,” Turkkan said. “The device had its own capacity and could wiretap for 10-15 hours.”

During the questioning by the prosecutors, Turkkan admitted he received the device from a person who claimed to be working at Turk Telekom, Turkey’s telecommunications center.

“[He] ordered me to eavesdrop on the general [Necdet Ozel]. He told me ‘We will tap him for intelligence purposes; nothing is going to happen.’ I did not question and took the device,” he said.

Lt Col Turkkan also admitted that Major Mehmet Akkurt — whom Turkkan claimed to be a member of Gulen movement and worked closely with it — spied on high-ranking generals, including the Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar.

During the interrogation, Turkkan also provided information on how the Gulen movement was organised inside the Turkish military.

“I believe 60-70 percent of those people who have been accepted inside the armed forces since 1990s are Gulen-linked people,” he said and added he received information about the military coup on July 14 at around 10amlocal time from Staff Colonel Orhan Yikilkan, who served as an adviser to the chief of staff.

“Yikilkan told me the president, the prime minister, the chief of staff and commanders-in-chief would be arrested; that would be done quietly; [the military coup] would be staged at 3am on early Saturday [July 16],” he added.

The failed coup attempt has not only strengthened the democratic system in Turkey but it has also exposed the fault lines in the Turkish system. Positive signs are already emerging from Turkey.

The failed coup attempt brought all democratic forces together on one platform with all political parties inside the parliament condemning the coup and extending full support to the democratic order.

Since the failed military coup, a total of 149 generals and admirals have been expelled from Turkey’s land, naval, and air forces. In addition, more than 1,000 military officers have been dismissed.

Meanwhile, over 100 high-ranking Turkish military officers were promoted, including 16 generals and admirals, besides 99 colonels.

With the purge from military ranks started, Turkey’s main opposition leader expressed support for the government’s dismissal of FETO members from the Turkish army.

“Changing the constitutional system and disabling an elected government through a coup are crimes under our laws,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), told news channel CNN Turk which is a healthy sign for the democratic process in Turkey.

The misadventure has provided an opportunity to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to remove fault lines in the system which provide oxygen to conspiracies. Moreover, it is about time for the Turkish president to also pay heed to his critics and introduce structural and systematic reforms to curb the possibility future military rebellions.

As a towering leader of modern Turkey, President Erdogan needs to understand that concentration of power has neither strengthened any individual nor any state. Rather, the sucking of power always resulted in weakening of the state.

Moreover, there is a need to also break the nexus between corruption, politics and terrorism. While FETO is being labeled a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government, there is a dire need to try all suspects in the country’s courts and let the judges decide the fate of the coup plotters and its mastermind.

President Erdogan has taken a welcome step by asking the US administration to extradite Fetullah Gulen so the priest-turned-politician could be given a chance to prove himself innocent under a due judicial process.

Turkey’s main opposition leader has said the Pennsylvania-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, accused of being behind the deadly July 15 coup attempt, must be extradited.

“If Fetullah Gulen says: ‘I want to be acquitted’ he has to come and be prosecuted by the independent courts in Turkey.” Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu told Turkish media after a visit to a police facility in the Golbasi area of Ankara.

The US state department should also examine the evidence against Mr Gulen and after due process, the controversial preacher may be extradited back to Turkey where treasury and opposition benches voice for his extradition with unanimity.

Nobody should be allowed to provoke people living abroad. As Pakistanis, we have seen many cases how politicians in self exile have danced to the tunes of the host countries and how intelligence agencies use such politicians as puppet leaders to create unrest in their native countries.

Once extradited, Turkey must give Mr Gulen a fair trial so nobody could question the judicial process. Else, Gulen may claim victimhood. Pakistanis are witness to the politics of victimhood as our political leaders, once caught red-handed in corrupt practices, not only evade justice through delaying tactics but they also fool their fellow countrymen by playing the victim as a political stunt.