The most significant evidence for Gülen's extradition

A substantial portion of the Turkish population, roughly 90 percent according to research, has a clear idea about the name behind the July 15 coup attempt. According to this view, Fetullah Gülen, who is currently residing in the U.S., was behind the atrocity. This is not only the opinion of the conservative and right-wing stratum who vote for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and/or support President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. From left-wing dissidents to Kemalists and from liberals to nationalists, different segments agree on this common opinion. The opinion that Gülen was the instigator of the coup attempt is one of the rare subjects on which all the societal groups in Turkey have agreed on in recent years.

But is there any proof of that? Thousands of documents, data and incidents have shaped the common opinion of Turkish people. However, of course, there can be some differences between the facts forming public opinion and phenomena that could be accepted as evidence by the legal system. The most tangible data showing Gülen's role in the coup is that the coup plotters wanted Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar to meet with Gülen after they took Akar hostage. This fact alone reveals that Gülen is the name behind the coup attempt. But what about the statements of other coup plotters who were apprehended? Akar's and President Erdoğan's aides and all the other coup plotters who were apprehended admitted that they are members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), they concealed their true identities while being promoted in state positions, received instructions from their Gülenist superiors and also confessed that the one organizing the coup was Adil Öksüz.The importance of Adil Öksüz, who is said to be the FETÖ imam in charge of the Air Force, stems from this: He received the order to stage a coup from Gülen in the U.S. and initiated the coup attempt by organizing meetings with other coup plotters after returning to Turkey on July 13. The airport he landed in Turkey has photos of him shot while he was entering Turkey. And on the night of July 15, he tried to directly manage the coup attempt by heading to Akıncı Air Base, which acted as the main headquarters of the coup plotters on that night. So, among the coup plotters, he is the name with the most tangible and direct ties with Gülen. When Öksüz was apprehended, he said he was not at Akıncı Air Base but looking for a field in the neighborhood and was released. Is there any footage or record available to prove that Öksüz was at Akıncı Air Base that night? No. It was only inferred from the statements of the coup attempting military officers.

All the documents were submitted to the U.S. However, the U.S. still wants to see more tangible and clear proof to verify that Gülen was the instigator of the coup in order to extradite him to Turkey. The subject came on the agenda a couple of days ago during Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ's Washington visit. The U.S. pointed out that some new proofs need to be added in order to corroborate the file on Gülen. The efforts to enrich the concrete evidence in the file are still ongoing for the purpose of Gülen's extradition.

In the midst of all these developments, an interesting fact surfaced. As you have already read in a caption in Daily Sabah yesterday, it is about a civilian named Kemal Batmaz who was employed as an executive at Kaynak Holding, which is one of FETÖ's main monetary sources. It turned out that he was jailed after being caught at Akıncı Air Base on the night of the coup.

What makes his name significant is that he was among the civilians organizing the coup. It was also proved that Batmaz entered Turkey on July 13 along with Öksüz. According to airport footage, they entered Turkey side by side, conversing with each other. This of course comes to mean that they know each other. Then, on the night of the coup attempt, both were apprehended at Akıncı Air Base. Evidently, they also traveled from the airport in Istanbul to the coup headquarters in Ankara together. The surprising developments do not end with this. Any footage showing Öksüz at Akıncı Air Base was nonexistent or deleted. But an interesting record was revealed about Batmaz. According to the camera footage recorded on the night of the coup attempt, Batmaz was walking through the corridors of the base while pro-coup generals were making a soldier salute him. In other words, this footage proves that Batmaz, who arrived in Turkey on July 13 with Öksüz and caught in the main headquarters of the coup two days later, managed the coup along with Öksüz and was superior to the pro-coup generals. This leaves no room for doubt that Gülen gave him the instructions to start the coup.