Gülen ordered followers to conceal themselves after December 2013 probes: Report

Fevzi Kızılkoyun – ANKARA

U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, ordered his followers to conceal themselves after the December 2013 graft probes, according to a police report sent to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The report, titled “The ideology of the [Fethullahist Terrorist Organization] FETÖ,” claimed that Gülen had ordered some of his adherents to leave Turkey and some others, who have infiltrated into the state, to turn into “sleeping cells” after the “Dec. 17-25, 2013 and July 15, 2016 coup attempts failed.”

The December 2013 corruption cases targeted figures close to the government and resulted in lasting enmity between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Gülen movement, former close allies.

Four former cabinet members - Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, Interior Minister Muammer Güler, EU Minister Egemen Bağış, and Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar - were accused in the probe before they were acquitted by parliament.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan previously described the Dec. 17-25, 2013 probes as “coup attempts.”
The report stated that FETÖ had evolved in “three stages” since its formation.

“The period starting from the 1970s, when the group was founded, until it expanded overseas, was called ‘the first stage/faith.’ ‘The second stage/life’ was between 1993 and the Dec. 17-25, 2013 process. The Dec. 17-25 process marked the group’s attempt to pass onto stage three. That stage was not realized because the Dec. 17-25 coup attempts failed,” the report said, adding that if the attempt was “successful” then FETÖ would have moved onto the third stage, the “sharia” or “conquest” stage. 

“The July 15 coup attempt was an attempt to move to the third stage. It is understood that these attempts will continue until either FETÖ disappears or a Fethullahist dictatorship is established,” it said.

Noting that FETÖ is still in its “second stage,” the report claimed that its main aim had become “maintaining its power” after widespread anti-FETÖ operations. 

“Gülen ordered some of its followers to go abroad, while ordering members who had infiltrated the state to turn into sleeping cells. At the point that has now been reached, the most reasonable way of acting for the group is to go underground for the long-term, waiting for the issue to be dropped off the agenda and for new generations to forget the events that unfolded before resurfacing,” it added. 

The report stated that Gülen wanted to reach the “ideal order in his dream” via a three-stage strategy consisting of “infiltrating the top from above,” “precaution, hiding and invisibility” and “remaining powerful.”
Meanwhile, the main indictment regarding the thwarted coup said the fact that eight generals who allegedly participated in the coup were all born in the same town is “against the natural way of life.”

The detail was included in the indictment accepted by the Ankara 17th Court of Serious Crimes on March 8, referring to such “unnatural” incidents regarding the FETÖ structure in the Turkish Armed Forces, daily Cumhuriyet reported on March 9.

According to the indictment, eight coup-plotting generals, who are all related to each other, are from Yeşilhisar in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, a town with a population of 5,000.

“The fact that a large number of personnel in the general army and admiral cadres consisted of FETÖ members was explained through kinship and relative bonds and was thus kept hidden. Seven or eight generals from different ranks, who were all related to each other, were able to find spots in the command echelon at the same time. Three of those generals quit and five of them were either dismissed or jailed. A statistic like this is against the natural way of life,” the indictment read.

Meanwhile, police have launched an operation against suspected Gülenists in Turkey’s leading defense systems producer, Aselsan. 

Some 84 detention warrants were issued in the operation that was carried out on March 9 as part of the investigation carried out by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. 

A total of 43 people with suspected links to the FETÖ were apprehended in simultaneous operations launched on 86 addresses in four provinces. 

The suspects were sought for allegedly managing or being members of an armed terrorist organization.
 According to sources from the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, some of the detainees had already been dismissed and some are still on duty.