One of the most prominent figures of the Gülenist Terror Group’s (FETÖ) deep-rooted operations in Europe has been spotted in Germany, which has offered asylum to terrorists despite Türkiye’s protests since the bloody coup attempt in July 2016.
FETÖ member Celal Fındık is the latest of three other prominent names of the group to be photographed in Germany by the Sabah newspaper, which earlier tracked down Cevheri Güven, a well-known name in FETÖ circles who carries out the terrorist group's propaganda work abroad, and Mehmet Karabörk, a former police chief with three outstanding arrest warrants.
Just last week, Sabah discovered Ercan Karakoyun, the man in charge of FETÖ’s activities in Europe, in the northeastern Brandenburg state. He is known to be advising a local commission handling asylum applications, as well as serving on the board of the Dialogue and Education Foundation of FETÖ, which helps the group’s members who fled Türkiye to get accommodation in safe houses.
Sabah has also exposed FETÖ terrorists in other European states, including Abdullah Bozkurt, the bureau chief of FETÖ’s English-language daily Today’s Zaman, Bülent Keneş, the same newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Murat Çetiner, another former police chief who devised nearly two dozens of conspiracies within the Turkish judiciary, and Levent Kenez, a journalist leading black propaganda for the group under instructions from Bozkurt.
Fındık, however, is a fugitive of the law in Türkiye and on the "gray list" of wanted terrorists for his instrumental role in the July 15 coup attempt and the crime of "subscribing to an armed terrorist organization," according to records at the Criminal Court of Peace in Türkiye’s northeastern Gümüşhane province. In Germany, he has taken charge of the terrorist organization’s university offshoot.
He is acting as the general manager of the Forum Dialogue Institute and an administrator of the House of One, a foundation headquartered in the Vatican and subcontracted by FETÖ that serves as a treacherous project devised to harm Islam through concepts like "interreligious dialogue," "umbrella religion" and "Islam without the Prophet Muhammad."
The foundation, claiming to be a shared place of worship for Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities, cost 50 million euros ($54.44 million), with the German federal government supplying 20 million euros and the state of Berlin paying 10 million euros. The rest of the cost was raised by the group members.
When the construction first started for House of One on May 21, 2021, red-listed fugitives Abdullah Aymaz and Enes Kanter too had sent videos to be streamed during the groundbreaking ceremony.
Following such a public display, Ankara harshly denounced the multi-religious project. "This project will not bring together but separate the three religions and help legitimize and endorse a terrorist organization," a statement released by the Foreign Ministry said on May 28.
Minister Gregor Huhberg, a priest of St. Mary’s Church in Berlin, Israeli national and Rabbi Tovia Ben Chorin, and another FETÖ fugitive Imam Kadir Sancı of the Forum Dialogue Insitute are the identified initiators of the project. The three men of religion claim that the project is meant to bring together their respective religions to bridge an interreligious dialogue.
The Forum Dialogue Institute, on the other hand, has recently been flooding German authorities with reports that the imams of mosques belonging to Türkiye’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) are spying on behalf of Ankara.
FETÖ’s actual motive here is to close Diyanet mosques in Germany to replace them with projects operating out of the Vatican, similar to the House of One, in every state.
Fındık is conducting public relations for the project through interviews in media organizations like the one he gave to U.S.-based Huffington Post in 2017.
Fındık is also active in Karakoyun’s close working group, with whom he was seen walking side by side in Berlin, and the Verban Für Gessellschaffihes Engagement (VGE), another foundation launched in 2019 to conduct educational youth and interreligious dialogue projects on behalf of FETÖ.
Most recently, the FETÖ terrorist was in the audience during the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) trial of Yüksel Yalçınkaya, an ex-teacher and a Bylock user who was sentenced to six years and three months for being a FETÖ member. Fındık often provides legal support to the group’s members in Europe.
Bylock chats
Fındık, whose Bank Asya account saw a considerable surge in 2014 following ringleader Fetullah Gülen’s instructions, features prominently on FETÖ leaders’ Bylock chats, as well.
Under the chat titled "Organizational measures – Purging digital materials and measures," the leaders ask individuals that are included on counteroperation lists to be precautious. Fındık is said to be among those individuals.
"Mr. Eyüp has called, saying the House of One project is getting a foundation and the foundation needs a consultation council," reads another Bylock chat. "Since we haven’t made any recommendations yet, they suggested someone else from the outside. That’s Celal Fındık’s suggestion and since Arhan Gardas has moved there, they’re asking if they could suggest him to this council. There will be a meeting at House of One tomorrow. They need to send their recommendation until then."
FETÖ in Germany
Türkiye has sought the extradition of FETÖ terrorists in Germany, alongside other European nations and the United States, since 2016, but Germany and most others have consistently denied the requests, including for Karakoyun in 2020 and Adil Öksüz, the mastermind of the coup bid, as well as FETÖ-linked prosecutors Zekeriya Öz and Celal Kara.
Germany has been historically home to a large number of supporters of the PKK terrorist organization and other groups recognized as terrorists by Türkiye and the European Union. FETÖ, apparently encouraged by this, instructed its members to take shelter in the European country after the coup attempt.
Acting under the guise of a charity movement, FETÖ is widely tolerated in Germany, where about 14,000 of its members who fled Türkiye before and after the coup attempt reside. While most of Türkiye's other allies, especially countries in Africa, cooperate with Ankara in shutting down FETÖ schools and deporting the group's members, Germany often faces criticism from Turkish officials for its tolerant policy toward FETÖ.
Along with the embrace by Berlin, FETÖ members find assistance from fellow members of the group in the form of a nonprofit that seemingly aims to help "refugees." Aktion für Flüchtlingshilfe (Aid Action for Refugees), linked to FETÖ, helps the group's members arriving from Türkiye learn German and find jobs and accommodation in the country.
Group members who give interviews to German media outlets confirm an exodus of FETÖ members from Türkiye to Germany in the aftermath of the thwarted coup attempt. Data from the German Interior Ministry shows that 296 people bearing diplomatic passports and 881 others with service passports – issued to public sector employees, soldiers, etc. – applied for asylum in Germany from July 2016 to June 2018, and most are believed to be FETÖ infiltrators in the military and bureaucracy. Half of them were granted asylum.
The terrorist group also runs a lobby group to restore its tarnished image and is known to funnel millions of euros for public relations campaigns in favor of what they called the Hizmet (Service) Movement.