Women granted asylum by Norway are suspects in Turkish exam leaking case

ANKARA

The wives of soldiers granted asylum by Norway after the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt are among the suspects of the case into the leaking of Turkey’s Public Personnel Selection Exam (KPSS) questions in 2010.
 
Four Turkish military officers, who were on duty with NATO, as well as a military attaché, were granted asylum in Norway following their application after the thwarted coup. 

It has since been revealed that the wives of NATO officers, identified only as Staff Colonel Ö.F.S. and Staff Major S.D., are among suspects in the case into the leak of KPSS questions to U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, according to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. 

As part of the investigation carried out by public prosecutor Mustafa Gökçe, legal and administrative procedures were opened regarding 237 NATO officers and 165 military attachés, and the names granted asylum in Norway were among those. Arrest warrants were also issued for the five suspects granted asylum in Norway, daily Habertürk reported on March 28. 

It was revealed that the military attaché, who was on duty in Oslo until the foiled coup and who is identified only as Staff Colonel A.A., was a user of the smartphone application ByLock, which came to prominence after it emerged that members of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) used it. 

The prosecutor’s office determined that the KPSS suspect women previously worked in FETÖ-linked schools and deposited money in Bank Asya, a bank that was later seized by the state over its links to the network, upon Gülen’s order to do so. 

The name of another suspect, Staff Lt. Col. S.Y., was also seen in the testimonies of confessors, which revealed that S.Y. was a member of FETÖ and participated in its meetings. 

An investigation into the suspect, who was granted asylum by Norway and identified only by the initials İ.G., is currently being carried out by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the western province of İzmir. İ.G. was previously dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces. 

The asylum granted by Turkey’s fellow NATO ally Norway enables the soldiers to acquire residential and work permits in the country.

Along with the soldiers and the military attaché, Oslo also accepted the asylum applications of their family members. They have reportedly been residing in a secret address in the country. 

A number Turkish diplomats and officers serving abroad have sought asylum from mainly European countries in the aftermath of the thwarted coup.