Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan said that Celal Kara, the alleged Gülen Movement-linked prosecutor, who was conducting the Dec. 17 operation until he was removed from his post on charges of losing impartiality, confessed in an interview with Cumhuriyet daily that the operation was a coup attempt and then prime minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was the "number one" suspect in his investigation.

Kara is also accused of putting pressure on the prosecutor who replaced him. Kara has reportedly been indicating that Erdoğan's rule will not last much longer. Kara, a prosecutor allegedly affiliated with the Gülen Movement, which allegedly orchestrated the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 operations in an attempt to overthrow the government, is currently suspended from duty. "Tayyip Erdoğan will not see March. Don't count on him," Kara reportedly told the prosecutor who was assigned to his former post in a bid to pressure him.