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 |
Those who have an interest in Turkish politics may have been a little confused for the last few weeks, observing the row between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) government and the social movement of religious scholar Fethullah Gülen, or the “Hizmet” (Service) movement as they preferred to be called. The row is over the closure of private prep schools (“dershane” in Turkish).
Even before the coup attempt in July, the judiciary was being essentially taken over by [then] PM Tayyip Erdogan. When the attempted coup occurred in July, within 24 hours there were arrest warrants for almost 3,000 judges. And it’s very clear, and in fact it’s been admitted by the deputy chair of the High Council [of Judges and Prosecutors, the body that selects and assigns judges], that that list of judges had existed for years.
In a development that surprised many, the US State Department said on Tuesday that Turkey has formally requested the extradition of Gülen but not on issues related to the recent coup attempt, which Turkish leaders have accused him of inspiring.
Housed inside the building of APCO Worldwide, an independent communications consultancy firm, the art exhibition consists of 19 photographs taken by volunteers who participated in Kimse Yok Mu initiatives around the world, including in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia and Sudan. The exhibition will be open until Feb. 16.
Parents of Didem took a grief-stricken breath when they saw the police squad holding custody document which is written Didem’s name on it and they said “If you want to take her under custody you should go to cemetery. Didem is dead, my son.”