Rear Admiral Cihat Yaycı resings

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on late May 15 demoted the Chief of Staff of the Turkish Navy Rear Admiral Cihat Yaycı, who is known as the architect of Ankara’s naval policy regarding Libya.

Daily Hürriyet columnist Nedim Şener said on May 18 that Yaycı resigned after he was assigned to the Turkish General Staff last week.

Yaycı has been reputed as the architect of an accord with Libya on a maritime boundary and was known with his work for the struggle against FETÖ.

On Nov. 27, the foreign ministers of Libya and Turkey sealed the “Marine Jurisdictions” maritime boundary delimitation deal. The deal with Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli maps out a boundary in the east of the Mediterranean Sea. Yaycı had long been defending such a deal and he has a book on the issue of Turkey’s interests in the Mediterranean as well.

Yaycı is also known for a model he designed, called “FETÖMETRE,” which outlines criteria to determine the possible members of FETÖ, which is blamed to have been behind the failed coup attempt in 2016. The model is widely used to determine covert FETÖ members in the Turkish Armed Forces.

“Yaycı is known with FETÖMETRE—the memorandum signed between Libya — along with his work that strengthens Turkey’s thesis against the demands of Greece on the issue of the Aegean, and is known as someone who works for the interests of Turkey,” Şener wrote in his column on May 18. He recalled that in December, Erdoğan had expressed gratitude to Yaycı for his work on his country’s Libya policy.

 “Of course, what he has done and wrote has disturbed countries such as the U.S., EU, Greek Cyprus, Greece and Israel,” Şener noted.

“According to the allegation, the reason given for the change to his post is quite strange: Having rigged a tender,” Şener said.

Accordingly, Yaycı informed his seniors about a fault in a part of a torpedo during its examination process. The procurement has been finalized to be used by the navy on condition that deficiencies are eliminated, Şener wrote. However, the company, which won the tender and was paid, and was instructed by the navy commander, issued a complaint about the inspection process, the columnist said.