Diplomats confessed to FETÖ irregularities in foreign ministry entrance exam investigation
Fevzi Kızılkoyun- ANKARA
Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into alleged irregularities by FETÖ in the recruitment exams of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2010- 2013.
Within the scope of the investigation, it was determined that 275 people were assigned in line with the candidate profession officer examinations, and 249 of them were related to FETÖ.
Some 132 suspects were detained in operations against suspected diplomats, most of whom were on active duty. After their inquiries, 31 were arrested and 86 were released on condition of judicial control. Fifteen diplomats, who confessed by taking effective remorse, shared “intimate” secrets in their statements.
The 15 diplomats, who confessed, said that the “private imams”- an expression used for high profile group members responsible for junior FETÖ members – delivered the exam questions in the special houses of FETÖ.
The FETÖ investigation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that this set-up prevented graduates of METU and Boğaziçi University to be recruited at the ministry but allowed hiring of group-linked personnel who even had poor English proficiency.
A report on the subject matter of investigation presented by the Foreign Ministry said the universities, where the civil servants graduated from 2010 to 2013, show a deviation before and after 2010.
The graduates of METU, Bilkent, Hacettepe, Ankara, Boğaziçi and Istanbul universities were the first in the ranks of the ministry recruitment. But in 2010-2013 (the period when the questions allegedly were stolen), the candidates who graduated from FETÖ-related universities, especially Fatih University, increased in the foreign ministry, according to the report.
Diplomat Y.Ş, one of those who confessed, said he was placed at a house known as the “studying house” of the group, and he and others at the house were given Turkey’s Public Personnel Selection Exam (KPSS) questions after their cellphones were collected. The diplomat said he was then moved to another house to study on the foreign ministry entrance exams.