05 July 2017•Update: 06 July 2017
ISTANBUL
A letter asking about reported 2014 contacts in between U.S. missions in Turkey and alleged members of the group blamed for last year’s defeated coup in Turkey was delivered to Ankara’s U.S. Embassy on Wednesday, according to Turkish prosecutors.
Fugitive suspects Bayram Andac and Muharrem Gozukucuk - both alleged civilian “imams” (leaders) of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group blamed for the deadly July 2016 coup bid -- had several telephone conversations with the U.S. missions before and after a search of Turkish intelligence agency trucks in January 2014, according to prosecutors.
“The letter regarding the telephone conversations of two suspects of the MIT [National Intelligence Organization] trucks case with the embassy staff was received by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara” on Wednesday, Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Irfan Fidan told Anadolu Agency.
His comments come shortly after the embassy issued a statement claiming “the Embassy and Consulate General have not received any requests for information or been contacted by the prosecutor regarding this matter”.
An indictment concerning the 2014 interception of Syrian-bound Turkish intelligence trucks says Andac and Gozukucuk personally oversaw the raid and had multiple telephone conversations with the U.S. Embassy and Istanbul Consulate.
Questions about phone calls
Following the indictment, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s office requested that the U.S. missions provide details of the phone calls to aid the investigation.
The request asked the embassy to provide the date, time, and duration of the calls, the reason for the calls, their content, and which embassy staff spoke on the phone.
On Jan. 19, 2014, Syrian-bound trucks belonging to Turkish intelligence were stopped in the border province of Adana by local gendarmerie on suspicion they were carrying weapons, despite a national security law outlawing such searches.
Prosecutors accused the gendarmerie officials who stopped and searched the trucks of being members of the FETO terrorist group and of colluding with the group’s civilian “imams” and judicial collaborators.
FETO, led by the U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, is accused of orchestrating the defeated coup of July 2016 which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
The truck search incident made headlines as alleged FETO members publicly spread photos of the raid, despite national laws forbidding such searches.
A deputy for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and journalists for daily Cumhuriyet have been tried and sentenced for revealing state secrets by leaking and writing about the incident.
The alleged FETO members’ phone calls to U.S. representations in Turkey seem to echo an incident in which Adil Oksuz, a top FETO suspect, received a call from the U.S. Istanbul Consulate less than a week after the July 15 defeated coup.
Embassy officials said the call concerned Oksuz’s cancelled visa, but Turkish officials have expressed skepticism.
The Turkish government has said FETO is behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Reporting by Murat Kaya, Murat Paksoy and Mustafa Hatipoglu; Writing by Sorwar Alam
