Thursday is the 23rd anniversary of the murder of associate professor Necip Hablemitoğlu. Hablemitoğlu, a media-savvy academic working at Ankara University, was working on a book about the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) when he was shot dead outside his home in 2002.
The murder case was shelved when it led to a dead end, something blamed on widespread FETÖ infiltration into the judiciary, but authorities took it up again shortly before FETÖ tried to topple the government in 2016. A trial of suspects, including FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen and retired Col. Levent Göktaş, began in 2023 and is underway at a high criminal court in the Turkish capital.
Hablemitoğlu was a prolific author and publisher of a magazine. Specializing in Turkish history and the history of the Caucasus region, Hablemitoğlu’s popularity rose further when he penned a book about the secret activities of several German foundations in Türkiye. This book led to an investigation into the said foundations, and Hablemitoğlu was accused of inciting ethnic strife in Türkiye. He was working on another book named “Köstebek” or “Mole” in Turkish, when he was killed. The posthumously published book shed light on what Hablemitoğlu called “Fetullahist” infiltrators in the Turkish state, particularly law enforcement. In his book published in 2003, he also claimed that his phones were wiretapped and his emails were under surveillance because of his work on said Fetullahists. He has also claimed that the said group was evolving into an armed organization.
The first investigation into the murder led investigators to a defendant who claimed he was responsible for the murder. The defendant has also claimed that he killed five other people in Istanbul in murder-for-hire schemes. But the case was closed as investigators said they could not find sufficient evidence to convict the suspect.
A new indictment in the case, released one day before the July 15, 2016 coup attempt by FETÖ, linked the murder to the terrorist group. The indictment said FETÖ sought to pin the blame on “Ergenekon” for the Hablemitoğlu murder. “Ergenekon” was the name of a gang concocted by FETÖ-linked prosecutors to imprison critics and opponents of FETÖ, and led to the incarceration of several former generals and prominent names.
Along with Göktaş and Gülen, senior FETÖ member Mustafa Özcan, former intelligence official Enver Altaylı and several former military officers are among the suspects of the case. The suspects face prison terms between 20 years and life for their role in the assassination. The next hearing in the trial is scheduled for Jan. 30, 2026.
