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 |
Albayrak stated in the petition that unrealistic allegations and imputations, intended to defame his client Gülen, were made by Ala during his speech in Erzurum. Albayrak stated: “The expressions used by Ala cannot be considered within the scope of freedom of expression as they clearly violate the personal rights of Gülen.”
As the witch hunt against government opponents continues to grow, a number of education union representatives have criticized the recent government-backed police raids on private schools and educational institutions that are sympathetic to the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement.
Ünzile Köşker, who was jailed for alleged links to the Gülen movement, was not allowed to enroll at a university despite passing the nationwide entrance exam because she “posed a risk,” Bold Medya reported.
The ruling party has been undermining rule of law since the graft and bribery investigation that became public on December 17, 2013. It sees itself unfettered by laws and the Constitution. It has been sticking to the hoax of “parallel structure” –a veiled reference to members of the Hizmet movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen– in a desperate attempt to cover up the graft investigations.
Turkish police have tortured and otherwise ill-treated individuals in their custody after emergency decrees removed crucial safeguards in the wake of a failed coup attempt in July, 2016, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report details 13 cases of alleged abuse, including stress positions, sleep deprivation, severe beatings, sexual abuse, and rape threats, since the coup attempt.
Fethullah Gulen told reporters at his Pennsylvania compound he knows only a “minute fraction” of his legions of sympathizers in Turkey, so he cannot speak to their “potential involvement” in the attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.