By Muhammed Enes Can and Murat Kaya
ISTANBUL
Turkish police Friday detained at least 29 former banking auditors over irregularities in the December 2013 probe, a Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) plot against government ministers and leading businesspeople.
Speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking with the media, security sources said the state auditors, who were suspended by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency BDDK after the July 15 defeated coup, were detained over irregularities in the audits of bank accounts.
The accounts belonged to leading Turkish businesspeople as well as the Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) and the Turkish Youth and Education Service Foundation (TURGEV).
The auditors are accused of excessively examining 60 bank accounts – a total of 5,270 times between Jan. 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014.
Attempted coup masked as a probe
The prosecutors, along with other pro-FETO prosecutors and police officers, plotted the so-called graft probe against top government officials to overthrow Turkey’s elected government and launched a large-scale raid on Dec. 17-25, 2013, detaining prominent figures.
Shortly afterwards, the Turkish judiciary detected the irregularities in the probe and the abuse of power by the pro-FETO auditors.
The prosecutors and police officers involved in the so-called graft operation of Dec. 17 were facing detention when the former fled to Europe.
The government denounced the probe as a plot by the FETO terror group's head Fetullah Gulen's "parallel state," a group of Turkish bureaucrats and senior officials embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and police, working to undermine the government.
This Aug. 11, Istanbul’s Bakirkoy Chief Public Prosecutor demanded life sentences for three former prosecutors – Zekeriya Oz, Celal Kara, and Mehmet Yuzgeç – for their roles in the December 2013 investigation.
According to prosecutors, they face charges of forming an organization to commit crime, attempting to overthrow the government through use of force, misconduct, abuse of power, and forgery.
“The Dec.17 [2013] investigation is clearly not a corruption case,” says the indictment. “The plaintiff – as part of an operation to overthrow Turkey's president – aimed to link civilians with ministers, then to the Republic of Turkey's president."
In December 2014, the three prosecutors were suspended over the so-called graft probe against high-profile figures, including the sons of three former government ministers and leading Turkish businessmen.
Friday's police operation follow two major operations across on the country on Wednesday and Thursday against leading businesspeople and companies suspected of supporting FETO.
Financial crimes officers raided company headquarters – including Akfa Holding and the A101 supermarket chain – in Istanbul. Executives detained include Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) Chair Rizanur Meral, Aydinli Group Chair Omer Faruk Kavurmaci, and Faruk and Nejat Gulluoglu, owners of the well-known Gulluoglu Baklava chain.
Over 40,000 detentions in FETO probes
A wave of detentions following the July 15 defeated coup has seen thousands of people held across Turkey.
Senior business figures, as well as members of the military, police, and judiciary, have been among those targeted.
Turkish officials said that over 20,000 people had been remanded in custody since the July 15 defeated coup.
"40,029 people have been detained and 20,355 were remanded including police officers, soldiers, judiciary members, local administrators and civilians," Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Wednesday.
Yildirim also said a total of 5,187 people are still being questioned.
So far, nearly 80,000 civil servants have been suspended from duty, while just over 5,000 have been dismissed, Yildirim added.
Turkey's government says the defeated coup, which left 240 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his FETO network.
