Turkish Authorities Issued Arrest Warrants For Over 200 Soldiers Allegedly Linked To Gulen Movement

[The third anniversary of the failed coup attempt against the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey falls on the 15th of July 2019. The coup attempt was organized and carried out by a faction of the Turkish military with links to the Gülen movement, an organization designated as a terrorist group by the Turkish government and whose leader, Fethullah Gülen, lives in the United States. The Turkish government has recently issued arrest warrants for several dozen Turkish soldiers, including officers, in addition to some civilians for their participation in the 2016 coup attempt, which occurred approximately half a year after Turkey’s brazen shootdown of a Russian SU-24 attack aircraft over Syrian airspace in November 2015 as it was returning from a mission against anti-Assad militants, resulting in the death of the pilot and a member of the search and rescue team at the hands of Turkish militants operating on the ground in Syria.

The significance of the failed coup attempt becomes clear in the context of Russia’s recent sale of S-400 air-defense systems to Turkey and the United States’ retaliatory cancellation of its sale of F-35 fighter jets to the country, as Turkey has obviously made a turn towards friendship with Russia at the expense of its relationship to the US. The failed coup attempt in 2016 was likely a last-ditch effort by the US to remove Erdoğan from power based on intelligence that he would meet with Putin—which he did less than a month later—to sort things out and improve relations between the two countries. Considering that Turkey has been a NATO member state since 1952, the failed coup attempt in 2016 and Turkey’s turn towards Russia demonstrates a visible weakness in the US empire. —Medved]

 

On July 9, Turkish prosecutors issued arrest warrants for over 200 soldiers in Istanbul and the Aegean Izmir province for their alleged links to the Gulen movement. Ankara calls it the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and says that the group behind the 2016 defeated coup.

“According to Istanbul prosecutors, the warrants were issued for 176 active-duty soldiers including colonels, lieutenants, majors, and captains in Istanbul and 20 active-duty and five former soldiers as well as 10 civilian suspects in Izmir.

The suspects are being sought as part of a probe into FETO infiltration of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), according to sources who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The suspects in Izmir are accused of communicating with FETO’s “covert imams” — senior FETO operatives — via pay phone.

The 10 civilian suspects in Izmir are accused of using FETO’s encrypted messaging application ByLock.

Police have rounded up eight of the suspects so far in simultaneous operations in 20 provinces across Turkey,” Anadolu Agency reported on the issue.

 

The FETO leader, Muhammed Fethullah Gulen, is currently hiding from the Turkish government at a compound in Pennsylvania, the US. According to Turkish officials, he and the CIA were behind the 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan. Over 240 people died in the attempted putsch.

HINT: Fethullah Gulen, an imam of Turkish origin currently residing in the US, has officially been accused by Turkish authorities of organizing the July 16 military coup in Turkey. Even though an extradition treaty exists between Turkey and the US, the State Department cited the absence of clear evidence of Gulen’s complicity in the coups preparation and refused to turn him over to Turkish authorities. Over a year has passed since the original accusations were made; however, Gulen’s name has practically vanished from Turkish and US media. But what about his influence? Who is he, and what does the shadowy global organization he created represent? MORE HERE

The interesting fact is that just recently US security forces seized 17 and a half tons, of cocaine worth $1.1 billion, at a Philadelphia port — inside the city’s US Custom House on June 21. The bricks of cocaine were confiscated from MSC Gayane belonging to the Swiss-based MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co. There is one US special agency, which is widely-known for its usage of cocaine trafficking as a tool of funding for operations aboard.

 

 

Original Source: https://southfront.org/turkish-authorities-issued-arrest-warrants-for-over-200-soldiers-allegedly-linked-to-gulen-movement/ (South Front)