Türkiye will continue working to quash any illegal formations or terrorist groups that intend to harm the unity and integrity of the state, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said Wednesday after a conspiracy against the government surfaced last week.
Speaking to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, Tunç said the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the capital Ankara continues probing the alleged plot revealed by Serdar Sertçelik, a secret eyewitness in an investigation into a criminal gang led by underworld figure Ayhan Bora Kaplan who was captured last year.
Sertçelik, who was smuggled abroad last year, is wanted for acting as an eyewitness in a false graft probe devised by three police officers – now suspended – to implicate people close to the government, from a former justice minister to prominent politicians.
Per his allegations, Ankara prosecutors arrested in total seven police officers linked to the case, including two deputy chiefs of the Organized Crime Bureau.
Sertçelik’s allegations were eerily similar to a plot by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which utilized its infiltrators in law enforcement and the judiciary to attempt to topple the government in 2013 by fabricated allegations against government officials in a graft probe.
Tunç assured his office was monitoring the investigation to determine whether the plot resembles the FETÖ’s methods.
He said authorities were currently taking statements and investigating phone records and evidence.
"Whoever has neglected their duty or committed a crime, the investigation will reveal it," Tunç told Sabah when asked whether the prosecution would launch a fresh probe into the Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses personnel involved in Sertçelik’s escape.
Authorities recently uncovered that Sertçelik had violated the rules of his house arrest nine times after he was released with an ankle monitor and then fled Türkiye.
An 84-page report from civil inspectors exposed gross negligence in Sertçelik’s escape. It said a notification went to the police departments, anti-migrant smuggling and border gates directorates of 80 provinces only nine days after he fled the country. It also said no investigation followed into the conditions of his escape or his abettors whose crimes are listed in the voice recordings released by Sertçelik.
Police last Thursday detained M.İ., an officer of the organized crime unit in the Ankara Police Department, for planning Sertçelik’s escape, along with three others who assisted him.
He reportedly gave a ride to Sertçelik from Ankara to Istanbul and oversaw his trip from Istanbul to Bodrum in southwestern Türkiye. From Bodrum, Sertçelik crossed to the nearby Greek island of Kos.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan too last week hit out at what he termed "forces of sedition" trying to disrupt the recent thaw in Turkish politics.
"We are aware of those whose sole capital in politics is dividing people and what they’re trying to achieve," Erdoğan said in a thinly veiled reference to the conspiracy. "But we will overcome it as we have similar attempts in the past."