Your recent article “Where in the world is Adil Öksüz?” is somewhat heavyhanded in its central argument.
It claims that Öksüz, a theology professor who was at Akıncı Air Base on the day of the coup attempt and has been at large ever since, is Ankara’s “best chance to win over key Western allies that have yet to be convinced” that the Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gülen was personally involved in the failed coup on July 15, 2016.
This is simply misleading. Some of the arguments put forth to support this claim rely on a report by the EU Intelligence Analysis Center, which later was dismissed by EU officials who have stated that it does not reflect the EU’s assessment of the facts around the failed coup.
In the meantime, with the help of the evidence emerging from ongoing legal proceedings, more and more light is being shed on the fact that the attempted coup could not have been executed by Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO) operatives in the Turkish military without the instruction and knowledge of Gülen, who sits at the apex of the terrorist organization’s hierarchical structure and strict chain of command.
The strongest evidence in this regard is indeed the testimony by Chief of Turkish General Staff Hulusi Akar. Forcefully detained by the coup plotters, Akar testified: “When the putschists held me hostage and wanted me to sign and read out the so called ‘manifesto’ of the coup, General Hakan Evrim told me that they can bring me in contact with their opinion leader Fethullah Gülen.” It is not unexpected that the officer under question would deny this.
For example, in his testimony, Erdal Karlıdağ, a major in the Ankara Provincial Gendarmerie, stated: “Two people came to my house a few days before the coup attempt and told me that 3,000 gendarmerie officers who were going to be dismissed from the army … because of their ties with FETO are ready for a coup attempt. We went to a park and [met with other officers]. They informed us that there will be a coup on Friday.”
Lt. Col. Levent Türkkan, from the Cabinet of Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar, confessed: “I have obeyed the orders and instructions of FETO brothers. I was spying on [former] Chief of Staff Necdet Özel all the time.” Other testimonies by FETO members reveal that those behind the coup used Bylock, an encrypted communication app designed solely for FETO members to communicate among themselves.
The coup attempt represents the pinnacle of Gülen’s conspiracy to slowly take over the democratic and legitimate institutions of the Turkish state through decades of insidious infiltration. A video of Gülen released in 1999 showed him calling on his followers to “move within the main arteries of the system of state. It is necessary and conditional that you continue your service as it is, until you reach a certain power without anyone noticing your existence.”
The theologian Öksüz, on whom the article places so much emphasis, is just one missing piece in disclosing the inner workings of FETO and how this terrorist organization plotted the coup attempt that targeted Turkey’s legitimate insitutions and threatened the sovereignty of the Turkish nation.
Faruk Kaymakcı
Ambassador at the Permanent Delegation of Turkey to the European Union.
Brussels, Belgium