3,000 police officers dismissed over Gülen links were blacklisted by group

Toygun Atilla – ANKARA

Some 3,000 police officers who were dismissed with previous statutory decrees can now be reinstated, as archives seized during an anti-Gülen operation showed that they were in fact blacklisted by the Gülen movement, widely believed to have orchestrated the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.

The information came to surface after authorities decoded contents of a two-terabyte card which the police forces seized during April 26 raids on alleged “secret imams” of FETÖ.

The data on the card revealed that 3,000 police officers who were previously dismissed were not members of the organization, clearing their charges and paving the way for their reinstatement after a new state of emergency decree is issued.

The card has also exposed some other 38,000 police staff as members of FETÖ, who were not yet detected by the authorities. 

The data on the card further described some other 12 police officers, currently accused of FETÖ membership, as “enemies” of the organization. The 12 police officers were previously dismissed on allegations of having used ByLock, a mobile application used by members of the Gülen movement.

Separately, early on May 10, Turkish police forces launched an operation against suspected members of FETÖ believed to be conducting a meeting in a flat in the western province of Balıkesir. 

As the police raided the apartment, Mustafa Hikmet Kayapalı, 59, tried to flee the scene from the balcony, but as the suspect was holding the handgrip, the iron metal broke off, leading to Kayapalı’s fall from the third floor.  

Kayapalı, who was being sought by the police on charges of being the network’s imam of the eastern province of Erzurum, died at the scene, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.