Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab has pleaded guilty and become a government witness against his alleged co-conspirator, Turkish state-run Halkbank Deputy General Manager Mehmet Hakan Atilla, in the New York court case.
No one was surprised that Zarrab decided to pursue a deal based on a witness protection program that ensures his family freedom. What is intriguing are the U.S. Southern District of New York attorney's accusations of Atilla, who allegedly played a much more junior role in the alleged sanctions busting scheme, according to the indictment. Suddenly, following Zarrab's deal, the prosecution began to depict Atilla as a mentor to Zarrab, someone who solved sanction related administrative problems, coaching Zarrab to violate U.S. laws and launder money.
In order to prove their case, prosecutors also embraced and praised the Turkish police investigation from December 2013, which was conducted by Gülenist prosecutors, judges and police officers for political reasons and largely prepared for a judicial coup in Turkey. The investigation cost four ministers their jobs, but the public did not buy the argument and subsequently re-elected the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in local election four months later.
Prosecutors largely set their indictment on recordings obtained by Gülenist police officers, and the legal criteria on custody of evidence suggests that these recording cannot be admissible in court unless U.S. attorneys come up with convincing authentication. Zarrab might be one of the people who can corroborate the recordings, yet the defendant can still dispute it because the prosecution does not have the original tapes, and they cannot prove that they obtained them legally.
The U.S. attorneys' decision to have a former Gülenist police officer as a government witness is also another sign that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York's office is unwilling to distinguish between the lawful and regular conduct of judicial affairs in Turkey and the highly politically motivated ones. No one can ever dispute that the so-called corruption inquiry was a politically charged affair, and Gülenist police chiefs were proved to have doctored evidence in past controversial trials such as Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer).
The international media is speculating that the court process will expose the Turkish government's dirty secrets. Yet people fail to understand that putting some former members of the Turkish government on trial in New York will not produce the results they want. The Turkish public, I believe, will reject the validity of the judgement because they do not recognize U.S. authority concerning Turkey's domestic affairs.
Finally, the Turkish public also believes the U.S. government was a conduit in providing assistance and shelter to Fetullah Gülen and his cult through its various agencies. Across the political aisle, Turkish citizens disapprove of Gülen, who was the mastermind of the failed coup in their country.
But none of this matters for U.S. law enforcement, which trusts Gülenists more than legitimate Turkish authorities. The FBI still takes it very seriously when known Gülenists make allegations about certain individuals in the United States, and pursue them. Despite the mounting evidence on Gülenist charter schools, donations and green card scheming, the FBI is yet to bring a case to court. The so-called investigation into Gülen's criminal network is still open in the U.S., but somewhat also frozen.
Doubtlessly, Gülenists are extremely happy about this situation. They believe they can avenge their loss in Turkey through the superpower's authority. One could see their amazement by attending the court proceedings. Many Gülenist figures are closely following and reporting on the trial.
Maybe it is not very hard to understand why anti-Americanism is highly fervent in Turkey after all.