Ankara police raid Gülen-linked business group TUSKON

ANKARA

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Ankara police on Nov. 6 searched offices of business groups working under the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), known to have close links to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s office ordered the search targeting TUSKON’s member associations, Anadolu Agency reported. The order was issued by the Prosecutor’s Office Bureau for Crimes against the Constitutional Order, the Cihan News Agency said.

The raids were launched as part of an investigation into the “Parallel State Structure Terror Organization/Pro-Fetullah Terror Organization” (Fetullahçı Terör Örgütü), Anadolu Agency reported. The “Pro-Fetullah Terror Organization” was first cited in a draft indictment penned by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and finalized in April. The indictment stated that it had found “concrete evidence” that sympathizers of Gülen were trying to form a “Cemaat state” parallel to the state of the Republic of Turkey.

Police also this week detained dozens of high-ranking state officials and police officers in several cities, as part of the ongoing investigation into Gülen supporters.

TUSKON was founded in 2005 in Istanbul and, as defined on its institutional webpage, is an “umbrella organization representing seven business federations, 211 business associations and over 55,000 entrepreneurs from all over Turkey.”

TUSKON has played a role in diversifying Turkey’s exports, mainly to African countries and Latin America, at a time when such a move was vital due to the crisis in the eurozone, the largest destination for Turkish exports.

It has four foreign representative offices in Brussels, Washington, Moscow and Beijing.