July 15 and Akıncı air base: The fiscal ties between the putschists

There is a common point that connects the July 15, 2016, coup attempt’s civilian executive staff who spent the night of the attempted takeover at the Akıncı air base and was then caught by the gendarmerie forces on the morning of July 16, 2016, at the open field near the base with each other. The connection is fiscal relations. 

Let me try to show you the links between the coup’s civilian executives with each other through partnerships in Gülen-linked companies, changes in the stock shares, and social security insurance (SGK) records of these companies, as well as through the Akıncı air base indictment and the Trade Registry Gazette. 

When we conduct it, Bank Asya, which harbored the financial leg of the Gülen movement, and Kaynak Holding, the organization’s most important business institution, appear in front of us. For example, Kemal Batmaz, one of the civilian executives of the coup, first started to work at Kaynak International Trade Corporation, under the umbrella of Kaynak Holding, in 2001; and then he transferred to Kaynak Paper Corporation, which he left in 2015 after serving as a CEO. 

Batmaz also owns 10 percent of the stocks of the Gürmed Medical Private Health Identification Treatment Centers Limited Company, established in 2005. Most of the shares of this company are owned by Mehmet Sungur. Batmaz also owns 11 percent of another company named Gürmed Medical and Technological Systems Industry and Trade Corporation, established in 2010. This company’s executive board chairman is also Sungur.

There is also a company named Garnet Medical and Technological Systems International Trade Corporation, established in 2005. When Batmaz owned 50 percent of this company, he transferred his shares to Sungur on Aug. 12, 2005 and left this company. 

In all of the three companies, we see Sungur as the key player. Sungur is a businessman who was among the guests who loudly applauded Rıza Nur Meral, the head of the Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey (TUSKON), a Gülenist businessmen’s organization, at its March 1, 2014-dated general assembly, after Meral defied then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. There is also an arrest warrant against Sungur. Let me also mention that the government appointed a trustee to all of the three aforementioned companies for their connections to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ)/Parallel State Structure (PDY). 

We have to stop for a while when the name of the Garnet Corporation is uttered. In an indictment into the Akıncı air base, it is indicated that the “imam” of the air forces, Adil Öksüz, was on a vehicle with the number plate “34 SIR 49” on his way to Ankara to organize coup preparation meetings. According to the records of the Number Plate Recognition System (PTS), which surveils the front part of vehicles at the entrance of the city, it has been determined that this vehicle had arrived in Ankara around 11 times between Dec. 27, 2015 and June 15, 2016. How did Öksüz get hold of this Audi 6 vehicle? According to a statement given by İmran Okumuş, appointed to Kaynak Holding as a trustee, to the state-run Anadolu Agency on Aug. 17, 2016, this vehicle was given to Öksüz by the Garnet Company. Okumuş also said in his statement that the office Öksüz used in Istanbul’s Kısıklı neighborhood as a headquarters belonged to Garnet Company.

Öksüz’s relation with Sungur’s companies is not limited to this. According to the indictment, Öksüz’s wife, Aynur Öksüz, has social security insurance registered at the Gürmed Medical and Technological Systems Industry Trade Corporation. Moreover, a Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) report shows that Sungur transferred 234,000 Turkish Liras to Öksüz’s bank account on Feb. 2, 2014. 

Öksüz’s brother-in-law Abdülhadi Yıldırım appears as a shareholder in the third company, Garnet Corporation, for some time. According to the June 17, 2008-dated report on the Trade Registry Gazette, Yıldırım had 40,000 liras worth of shares in the company with a capital of 1 million liras, corresponding to 4 percent. 

In his testimony to a prosecutor’s office, Batmaz said he did not know Öksüz, but knew his brother-in-law, and on his way to the U.S. for a visit, he had given Yıldırım’s address. 

Now, let’s look at Harun Biniş’s situation. Biniş worked at the Venero Informatics Industry and Trade Limited Company, which was established in 2004. An April 16, 2004-dated Trade Registry Gazette indicates that Biniş was appointed to this company as a manager. On Aug. 31, 2006, Ertuğrul Mescioğlu’s shares in this company were transferred to Biniş. Biniş, in 2010, transferred his shares to Sürat Informatics Technologies Company and then cut his relations with Venero. On Aug. 5, 2011, Kaynak Holding became the second biggest shareowner of Venero’s new stock structure. And in 2015, a trustee was appointed to Venero for its connection to FETÖ/PDY. 

Biniş also seems to be the 3.68 percent owner of the shares at the company named Kaynak Media Corporation. This company’s vice chairman of the management board was for a while Batmaz. Moreover, it came to light that Biniş also had a social security insurance registry at the Gürmed Medical and Technological Systems Corporation. All of these are corporations that conducted transactions within the control of FETÖ/PDY.

After that, between 2012 and 2015, Biniş worked at Milsof Software Technologies Corporation. Sungur appears before us again, this time as this company’s executive board chairman and as is one of the two partners. A trustee was also appointed to this company for connections to FETÖ/PDY on Feb. 19, 2016. 

According to the Akıncı air base indictment, Milsoft Software Corporation was also in a business relationship with the Air Force Command. In the indictment, it is indicated that the intelligence division of the Air Force Command sent 7,062,851 liras between April 10, 2014 and July 13, 2016, two days before the coup attempt, to Milsoft Corporation for the services received. 

Well then, in which part of the indictment does this information take place? It takes place under the section on Brigadier Gen. Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, who was the head of the intelligence department of the air forces on July 15, 2016. I am talking about the brigadier general who led the special team that went by helicopter to Marmaris from İzmir’s Çiğli district to capture President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

See, we started off from Akıncı air base and said fiscal relations, but look where we arrived…