Turkey adds former Fatah leader to most wanted list
ANKARA
Turkey has added former Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan to its most wanted terrorists list, offering a reward of up to 10 million Turkish Liras (about $1.75 million) for information leading to his capture, the Interior Ministry said on Dec. 13.
A total of 9 terrorists were added to the wanted list, including four in most wanted, the ministry said.
Arrest warrants have been issued for Dahlan on accusations of playing a role in the 2016 defeated coup attempt in Turkey, "seeking to change the constitutional order by force," and various spying-related charges, the ministry said in a statement.
After the defeat of the July 15 coup attempt, Dahlan’s name emerged as a suspect. High-level Turkish security sources reported the UAE collaborated with coup plotters, using the exiled Fatah leader as a go-between.
Speaking to Hürriyet Daily News on Nov. 21, the interior minister had said Turkey’s fight against the FETÖ will include some foreign nationals who have been involved in the coup attempt.
“Mohammed Dahlan and his network will soon be listed on our red list (of terrorists),” Süleyman Soylu said.
Dahlan is alleged to have transferred money to plotters in Turkey in the weeks before the coup attempt and to have communicated with FETÖ.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup attempt of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people killed and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
Dahlan has a long history of plotting against Arab Spring revolutions and is accused of taking part in counter-revolutions.
In 2012, Dahlan collaborated with then-Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to oust Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically-elected president.
His name also appeared in conflict-ridden Libya, where he supported, on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, controversial military commander Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya.
A notorious former security official and Abu Dhabi-based political operator, Dahlan has lurked for years in the shadows of Palestinian politics.
Born in 1961 in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, Dahlan headed the Palestinian Preventive Security apparatus in Gaza from 1995 to 2000, following the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.
Throughout the years, his forces were involved in acts of violence and intimidation against critics, journalists and members of opposition groups, primarily from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, imprisoning members of the two groups without formal charges.
A number of prisoners died under suspicious circumstances during or after interrogation by Dahlan’s forces.
In 2007, Dahlan left Gaza for the West Bank city of Ramallah, after Hamas defeated his U.S.-backed efforts to thwart the group’s control in the strip.
U.S. President George W. Bush described Dahlan at the time as “our boy”.
In Ramallah in 2011, Dahlan was expelled from Fatah after falling out with Palestine Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. The PA accused Dahlan of enriching himself through financial corruption and conspiring to undermine Abbas.
Since then, Dahlan has lived in the UAE and became an adviser to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Muhammad bin Zayed, where he plotted against Arab Spring revolutions and implemented UAE interferences’ agenda in Arab and regional countries.