Former police chief lists FETÖ-linked officers to enjoy clamancy

A former Turkish deputy police chief in Ankara who was involved in the July 15 coup attempt has revealed the names of dozens of other police officers linked with the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ).

Gürsel Aktepe, the former deputy head of the intelligence organization in the police, said in his interrogation that it would have been impossible to attempt a coup without Fetullah Gülen's knowledge and instruction and declared that he wanted to benefit from the effective repentance law.

Giving several names that are linked with FETÖ, including Ramazan Akyürek, one of the former police intelligence chiefs linked to the case of murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, Aktepe said he had twice talked with his successor, Kozanlı Ömer, whose real name is Osman Hilmi Özdil, previously referred to as the police imam of the Gülen Movement.

Government and security officers intensified their efforts to test the accuracy of the names given by Aktepe during his interrogation.

Dismissed from the police due to links with FETÖ after the Dec. 17 and 25 coup attempt, Aktepe was captured after attempting to seize his former office in Ankara before being taken in by pro-government forces on the coup attempt night.

Previous reports about him demonstrated that he was able to hide his FETÖ links during the assassination attempt on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his prime ministry in 2013 and after he helped prevent the assassination.

Relaying information to the Parliamentary Phone Tapping Commission at that time, he explained that through listening in on phone calls of police he was able to unravel plans to stage an assassination attempt on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which they managed to successfully divert.

Although he explained that during an operation on an illegal extreme-leftist organization in Ankara and Istanbul in March 2012, six arrests were made and diagrams detailing plans to assassinate Erdoğan were confiscated by police and significant strides were made against terrorism by using this method, it is uncovered that Aktepe tried to legitimize the wiretapping.