Aydın Ünal, the deputy of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the former speech writer of Turkey’s autocratic President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has claimed that “the involvement of the US or a group in the US (administration) into the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 is well-known.”
Giving an interview to state-run Anadolu new agency (AA), Aydın Ünal, who is known with his radical Islamist background and his sympathy with radical Islamist terror organizations, has stated that “Fethullah Gülen is a miserable charlatan. There is a state which uses Gülen as a puppet and that state is the US.”
Claiming that “the Gülenists and the US put pressure over the coup suspects,” Ünal has added that “Because of this pressure nobody could be confessor, they could not tell the realities… They defend Fethullah Gülen with the cost of their honor and characters. They have continued to protect Fethullah Gülen and the US, however that will not rescue them.”
Alleging that “It is well-known that the US or a group in the US (administration) has involved into the coup attempt,” Aydın Ünal has continued his remarks as follow: “Gülen is not a person who has a power, knowledge and experience to organize and to plan such a coup attempt. Gülen has no ability to found and to grow and to administer such a great organization (he means Gülen movement). Fethullah Gülen is a miserable charlatan. There is a state which uses Gülen as a puppet and that state is the US. If we look at the defenses of all coup suspects, it seems that they spend a great effort to not connect the coup attempt with Gülen and so with the US. If a coup suspect say that ‘the coup was organized by Fethullah Gülen’ then the US which is protecting Gülen will be come under suspicion.”
Ünal also claimed that “there is no tiny doubt over the fact that one of the main coup suspect Adil Öksüz was called by the US Consulate General on the night of the coup attempt,” and said that “In the same way, we also know that a phone call was done from the US Embassy in the case of interrupting the trucks of National Intelligence Organization (MİT) (which carried weapons and ammunition to the radical terror organizations in Syria to use against Bashar al-Assad regime).”
Ünal added that “A group in the US has been fully involved into these incidents. They control them. Fethullah Gülen and suspects on trial are just pincers. We know that the essential actor here is a group in the US (administration). Therefore, they don’t want to unearth the events and they threaten the coup suspects. So, we see just a few confessors to emerge. This nation has spoiled the numbers of US plots and Inshallah the nation will spoil this plot too.”
Ünal had previously listed Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) among terrorist organizations in a column in the staunchly Erdoğanist Yeni Şafak daily. Ünal had argued that the CHP intersects with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Gülen movement, which the government labels as terrorist organizations.
According to Ünal, the CHP “unconditionally” takes sides with Europe whenever problems arise between Turkey and Europe. Ünal further stated that by blaming the government and the president after every terrorist attack, the CHP provides “political logistics” to terrorism. For Erdoğan’s long-time speechwriter, the CHP’s narrative overlaps with terrorist organizations and Europe.
Ünal had also listed the media and journalists, writers, academics, intellectuals and artists as a category while describing terrorism in his column.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ has urged US officials on Wednesday to reveal all documents it has on Adil Öksüz, after a phone call was made to Öksüz from a number registered to the US Consulate six days after the coup attempt.
“The phone call made from the US Consulate in İstanbul is to Öksüz’s phone number, which he is actively using. There are two numbers registered in his name, however, the US Consulate calls him from the number he is actively using. The question is, how does the US Consulate know this is his active number?” Bozdağ said in a televised interview with state-run broadcaster TRT Haber on Wednesday.
Indictment about Akıncı Air Base on the coup night had stated Öksüz received a call on July 21, six days after the coup attempt, from a phone number registered to the US Consulate. As the indictment was issued on March 2017, US officials issued a written statement claiming the call was a routine procedure concerning his visa application.
“It is interesting that the last number to call this phone is the US Consulate. There are no other calls. Does he have a visa application to the consulate? If there is [an application], then there should be phone numbers he declared in the application,” Bozdağ said, asking the US officials to reveal documents concerning his visa application.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch AKP government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup. Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15.
