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12 police officers in Turkey have been removed from their duties following allegations of their involvement in a plot once morest the government. The alleged plot allegedly involved members of the mafia, judges and police officers.

The case concerns the information allegedly disclosed by a fugitive, a member of the mafia gang, Serdar Sercelik, number 2 in the group of the arch-mafioso Ayhan Bora Kaplan, who was arrested, on October 7, 2023, at Esenboga Airport in Ankara in his attempt to flees abroad.

From abroad where he is now Sercelik complains that he was forced to testify as a protected witness and sign a confession in which he names former government ministers Erdogan.

Sercelik, in revelations he allegedly made to the opposition newspaper Sozcu, states that while in Cyprus and wanted in Turkey they called him to Ankara, not to arrest him, but to make a statement and promised him that he would then be released.

According to his words, he presented himself to the ranks of the Turkish police in occupied Cyprus, from there he was sent by air to Ankara, where he was awaited by officers of the Directorate of Combating Organized Crime of the police. In Ankara, he says, he was asked to become a protected witness under the threat that if he did not accept he would face life in prison.

Sercelik, according to his statement, initially signed a 19-page statement and then two more statements and was released with restrictive conditions and a “bracelet”, however he allegedly moved freely in the Turkish capital and in the second year he fled abroad. In his confession, Sercelik allegedly testified once morest government officials, according to Turkish press reports.

However, police sources denied, according to Sozcu, that Sercelik implicated the names of former Interior Ministers Suleiman Soylu and Justice Bekir Boztag, as well as the director of the special office of the Presidency of the Republic, Hasan Dogan. However, Turkish press reports say that Sercelik’s testimony also mentions other names of ministers and government officials.

In the shadow of the uproar caused by this information and following the relative report of the inspector appointed to investigate the case, the day before yesterday, Tuesday, by decision of the Minister of the Interior, Ali Gerlikaya, the deputy police director of Ankara, the head of the Coping Directorate were removed of Organized Crime and the deputy director of the same agency and later it became known from the prosecution that three police directors and a police officer were arrested in the context of the related investigations, without being named. Today the number of police officers who have been terminated has reached 12, five police chiefs and seven other police officers.

The government side blames the plot on remnants of the state apparatus of followers of the preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom it also blames for the 2016 coup attempt aimed at wearing down the government. On the other hand, several political analysts and Turkish media reports point to the creeping conflict between the former and current Minister of the Interior, Suleiman Soylu and Ali Gerlikaya. The second, from the moment he took office following last year’s elections, “dismissed” dozens of high-ranking officials of the ministry and especially of the Police, amid intense rumors regarding “dark” relations of the “Soilos system” with the underworld.

The first significant political reaction to the case came from Erdogan’s government partner and leader of the Gray Wolves’ Nationalist Action Party (AAP) Devlet Bakhceli. In his speech, on Tuesday, to the MHI Parliamentary Group, the word “coup d’état” was heard from Bakhtseli’s lips:

“We know all the illegal networks of contacts and relationships. A conspiracy is afoot which cannot be overcome by the suspension of some police chiefs. In fact, the target is the Nationalist Action Party, the AKP, the People’s Alliance and, ultimately, Turkey. Curse be upon us if we bow down or turn a blind eye to those planning a repeat of the December 17-25 coup attempt (s.p. refers to the large-scale judicial and police operation of 2013 to implicate government officials in scandals corruption), in cooperation with the police and the judiciary.

Anyone who patronizes and serves the conspiracy (this) of discrediting honest names with secret witness statements and seeking to overshadow the stated will of the nation is a traitor, a vagabond and their ramifications in the police, judiciary and media must be be dealt with. To show them what “business with clean hands” means. It is a matter of existence and honor of the Rule of Law to show this to everyone and put them all in jail.”

Devlet Bakhceli “pointed out” as the perpetrators of the conspiracy the “Gülenists” (FETO), i.e. the followers of the preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom Ankara blames for the 2016 coup attempt: “The moment is approaching when they will pay the price and will not the treacherous FETO members at home and abroad and the so-called journalists who have been sold and recruited as their representatives can escape.”

The case was indirectly mentioned by President Erdoğan himself, during yesterday’s speech to the AKP Parliamentary Group: “We cannot and will not allow the reappearance of manipulation phenomena through the bureaucracy (s.s. Public Administration), which we have overcome in the last 21 years as a result of arduous struggles.

We follow every recent incident in the news in all its dimensions down to the smallest detail. Whoever deviates from the law, whoever makes a mistake, will definitely face his responsibilities based on the law. There is no excuse for not doing one’s duty towards the country and the nation. For us, every second is a credit from our nation and we must spend it for our nation.”

According to the BBC’s Turkish service, on Tuesday evening, following Bakhceli’s statements, President Erdogan met at the presidential palace with the Minister of Justice, Yilmaz Tundz, and the head of the MIT intelligence service, Ibrahim Kalin.

On the same subject, the Turkish Minister of the Interior, Ali Gerlikaya, in his post on Platform X said that “we will destroy those who are in league with the terrorist organizations, their offshoots and organized crime organizations and anyone who tries to play tricks once morest the master of our president, our government and our politicians with FETO’s tactics using social media and their tricks and traps.”

With information from protothema, the Turkish interior minister further states that the plans of those who want to impose their own dark plans, with the tactics of FETO’s protected witnesses, will be destroyed and destroyed. “If there is an organized action once morest our president, our government and our politicians in any institution, we will go to the end, we will identify these structures and bring them to justice” notes Ali Gerlikaya.

It is worth noting that the hashtag #coup (#darbe), as well as others related to the case, have been trending for the last two days on the X platform in Turkey.

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