Pushed back FETÖ suspect saved by Turkish Coast Guard
Fevzi Kızılkoyun – ANKARA
A FETÖ suspect, trying to flee to Greece by boat, has been saved by the Turkish Coast Guard, after being beaten, pushed back and left to perish on the sea by Greek forces.
The incident happened on Nov. 6, when Ömer Alaca, who was responsible for FETÖ’s activities in the country’s Finance Ministry, set sail from the western province of İzmir on a boat organized by a human smuggler.
“I went to İzmir from Istanbul following a meeting with a smuggler named ‘Mehmet.’ In İzmir, I met a guy named ‘Hakan’ and gave him 6,000 Euros before going abroad,” Alaca said in his first testimony he gave to Turkish police after being rescued.
According to Alaca, the boat carrying 11 people including him, arrived at a Greek island in the early hours of the day. Three Greek police officers started chasing him as soon as he stepped onto land, he said.
“I had to surrender [as there was nowhere to run],” he said and went to say: “They committed physical violence while searching me.”
Alleging that the police officers hit his arms, knee and back with nightsticks, he noted, “One of them slapped my face three or four times.”
“They seized my mobile phone, 1,000 euros in cash, even my earphones, and took me to a boat full of some refugees,” he added.
The boat was pulling a dinghy and in the middle of the sea, the Greek police officers forced Alaca and others to get on board the dinghy. “They left with the boat and left us to die in the dinghy,” he said, saying the number of the refugees was around 50, with only three or four Turks.
Alaca pointed out how his life was saved with the help of “112,” Türkiye’s emergency line.
“As the Greek officers took my mobile, I asked a foreign refugee to use his mobile and called 112,” he said. “[Turkish] Coast Guard officials approached the dinghy and saved us.”
The FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gülen, orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 251 people were killed.
Alaca was brought to the capital Ankara, where an investigation about him was ongoing, and arrested recently.
