Officer confesses to expelling cadets opposing FETÖ
Ali Pehlivan, a military intelligence officer linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) has confessed to investigators that he worked for the terrorist group to expel military school cadets in order to replace them with those aligned with the terror cult.
Pehlivan, dismissed from the army and arrested following the July 15 coup attempt blamed on FETÖ, was working in an intelligence unit of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Invoking the remorse law that offers a reduction in prison terms, Pehlivan confessed to his terror cult ties, saying that he was recruited into the cult when he was a middle school student.
His statement was included in an indictment regarding the coup attempt at Akıncı, a military base in the capital Ankara that served as the command center for coup plotters, and reveals how the terror cult infiltrated the army. Several senior figures of FETÖ are accused of mobilizing the group's infiltrators in the army to launch the coup bid that killed 248 people before it was quelled.
Pehlivan said he worked under the point men of FETÖ who used aliases and avoided accessing phone contacts while instructing the group's members. His first "mission" for the terror cult was relayed by "brothers," FETÖ's point men, when he was appointed as a commander at a military school in 2011. "The brothers told me to give them information about the place where I worked and the commanders I served under. They would ask me to rate them as "reasonable" or "not," he said. "Reasonable" meant pro-FETÖ, while "not" meant they were non-members of the cult.
He was then reassigned to the western city of İzmir where he served as an instructor at a boot camp for cadets. "There my superior Captain Ertuğrul Yılmaz gave me a list of 12 cadets. ‘These guys are not good, they should not be allowed to graduate from the school,' he told me. He said I should find their faults, be it an untidy bed or something minor and repeatedly punish them. I did not understand at first but when I started getting to know the cadets, I realized it was because those cadets were not sympathetic to Gülen or his followers," he said. The cadets endured bullying from their superiors but the next year, Pehlivan says, they dropped out of the school or suffered from low grades. "Then, we were given new lists," Pehlivan added.
Pehlivan says he felt bad about ending the military careers of the cadets, and when he explained his concerns to a "brother," the FETÖ member said he was "serving his country." "He had the lists of cadets not aligned with [FETÖ] as well and would ask me every week when we met whether we were working on forcing them to leave," he said.
A separate indictment into FETÖ's activities at military schools says the terrorist group, through its infiltrators working as administrators or instructors at those schools, turned to hazing to force the military cadets into submission or to eliminate those opposing them.
The terror cult is known for its widespread infiltration into the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and is accused of preventing others from rising up the ranks. Gülenist officers in charge at military schools subjected those not obeying cult members or opposing the group to a string of "torture" practices, such as forcing young cadets to stare into the sun for long periods of time or keeping them on the ground on hot asphalt roads.
The allegations are included in an inquiry from the Chief Prosecutor's Office in the central city of Konya. Based on eyewitness testimonies, the prosecutors claim that some suspects working at the military schools used training sessions to pressure the cadets into working for the cult.
Pehlivan, dismissed from the army and arrested following the July 15 coup attempt blamed on FETÖ, was working in an intelligence unit of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Invoking the remorse law that offers a reduction in prison terms, Pehlivan confessed to his terror cult ties, saying that he was recruited into the cult when he was a middle school student.
His statement was included in an indictment regarding the coup attempt at Akıncı, a military base in the capital Ankara that served as the command center for coup plotters, and reveals how the terror cult infiltrated the army. Several senior figures of FETÖ are accused of mobilizing the group's infiltrators in the army to launch the coup bid that killed 248 people before it was quelled.
Pehlivan said he worked under the point men of FETÖ who used aliases and avoided accessing phone contacts while instructing the group's members. His first "mission" for the terror cult was relayed by "brothers," FETÖ's point men, when he was appointed as a commander at a military school in 2011. "The brothers told me to give them information about the place where I worked and the commanders I served under. They would ask me to rate them as "reasonable" or "not," he said. "Reasonable" meant pro-FETÖ, while "not" meant they were non-members of the cult.
He was then reassigned to the western city of İzmir where he served as an instructor at a boot camp for cadets. "There my superior Captain Ertuğrul Yılmaz gave me a list of 12 cadets. ‘These guys are not good, they should not be allowed to graduate from the school,' he told me. He said I should find their faults, be it an untidy bed or something minor and repeatedly punish them. I did not understand at first but when I started getting to know the cadets, I realized it was because those cadets were not sympathetic to Gülen or his followers," he said. The cadets endured bullying from their superiors but the next year, Pehlivan says, they dropped out of the school or suffered from low grades. "Then, we were given new lists," Pehlivan added.
Pehlivan says he felt bad about ending the military careers of the cadets, and when he explained his concerns to a "brother," the FETÖ member said he was "serving his country." "He had the lists of cadets not aligned with [FETÖ] as well and would ask me every week when we met whether we were working on forcing them to leave," he said.
A separate indictment into FETÖ's activities at military schools says the terrorist group, through its infiltrators working as administrators or instructors at those schools, turned to hazing to force the military cadets into submission or to eliminate those opposing them.
The terror cult is known for its widespread infiltration into the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and is accused of preventing others from rising up the ranks. Gülenist officers in charge at military schools subjected those not obeying cult members or opposing the group to a string of "torture" practices, such as forcing young cadets to stare into the sun for long periods of time or keeping them on the ground on hot asphalt roads.
The allegations are included in an inquiry from the Chief Prosecutor's Office in the central city of Konya. Based on eyewitness testimonies, the prosecutors claim that some suspects working at the military schools used training sessions to pressure the cadets into working for the cult.
Last Update: April 03, 2017 22:23