Date posted: June 12, 2017
A report drafted by Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 has repeated an earlier claim made by the party’s leader suggesting that the coup attempt was a “controlled” one and that there were some Turkish authorities who knew about the coup plans but did not take any measures to prevent it.
The 307-page-long report, prepared by CHP deputies Zeynel Emre, Aykut Erdoğdu, Sezgin Tanrıkulu and Aytun Çıray, was revealed at a news conference in Parliament on Monday.
“The treacherous coup attempt on July 15 was a controlled coup that was foreseen, not prevented, and whose consequences were abused,” said Çıray as he spoke at the briefing.
CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has been claiming for some time that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan knew about the coup plan but they did not take the necessary measures to prevent it.
“The treacherous and bloody coup attempt was an unexpected, shocking and appalling development for the innocent citizens of the country. However, there were some who knew that this treacherous coup attempt would take place and those who waited for it,” says the report.
The report recalled that Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan met alone for 6.5 hours on July 14.
The CHP’s report on the July 15 coup attempt also refers to columns penned by pro-government journalist Fuat Uğur from the Türkiye daily, who wrote about coup plans in columns published on March 24, April 2 and April 21, 2016.
“These articles written by Fuat Uğur and similar columnists months before the coup attempt were an obvious source of intelligence for MİT. It is unthinkable for MİT not to have any idea about what Fuat Uğur knew,” says the report.
The CHP criticized a recent report prepared by the AKP government on the July 15 putsch on the grounds that it did not reveal the political phase of the coup attempt and aimed at covering up the coup rather than shedding light on it.
The military coup attempt on July 15 killed over 240 people. Immediately after the putsch, the AKP government along with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
According to a report by the state-run Anadolu news agency on May 28, 154,694 individuals have been detained and 50,136 have been jailed due to alleged Gülen links since the failed coup attempt.
Source: Turkish Minute , July 12, 2017
Tags: Erdogan’s Reichstag Fire | Military coups in Turkey | Turkey |

Professor Greg Barton, acting director of the Centre for Islam and the Modern World at the Melbourne-based Monash University has expressed his concerns about the course of events in Turkey in terms of basic rights and democracy.

The Turkey Tribunal, a civil society-led, symbolic international tribunal established to adjudicate recent human rights violations in Turkey, started proceedings in Geneva on Monday where rapporteurs pointed to the use of systematic torture by the government against alleged members of the faith-based Gülen movement and Kurds.

One year on, Turkey’s crackdown on suspected coup plotters shows no signs of ending – and has now reached human rights workers. Diego Cupolo reports from Ankara.

Scattered across a newsroom producing Turkey’s largest-circulating newspaper, the Zaman daily, journalists from the Feza Media Group remain confident while waiting for police officers to come and handcuff them.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today once again demonstrated he will go to any length necessary to solidify his power and persecute his critics. It is ridiculous, irresponsible and false to suggest I had anything to do with the horrific failed coup. I urge the US government to reject any effort to abuse the extradition process to carry out political vendettas.

Erdoğan has asserted that the Gülen movement is to be included in the Red Book as a “prioritized threat.” But never mind the fact that he acts and speaks as though this has all been decided upon already. The fact is, he does not have the proper authority to do this. What’s more, there is absolutely no document or piece of information that would support such a move.
