Prosecutor describes Gülenist police as terror organization

Toygun Atilla ISTANBUL

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A Turkish prosecutor has described the “parallel structure” led by U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen as an “armed terror organization,” citing the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) case, in which allegedly Gülenist police and judiciary members had cracked down on army officers with the same accusation.

Prosecutor İrfan Fidan sent the official “transfer document,” which included a request for the arrest of 21 policemen who were previously detained for illegal wiretapping, to the Istanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan on Feb. 12.

The 39-page document cited the Court of Appeal verdict in 2013 that upheld the conviction of 36 Sledgehammer case suspects, arguing that the suspected policemen could be described as members of an armed terror organization, like the army members had once been accused.

The transfer document also cited a report that the General Security Directorate’s Anti-Terrorism Presidency prepared about Gülen and his followers in the state bureaucracy, which the government describes as the “parallel structure.”

In the document, Gülen is accusing of leading an “official hierarchy” founded to “create an alternative system to the state” to ultimately seize control of all public institutions and becoming an international economic power.

The detained policemen are accused by the prosecutor of being a part of the plot, in which Gülenist judiciary members also took a role, fabricating evidence, producing fake informant letters, engaging in the illegal wiretappings of officials and espionage.