It has been nine years since the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) organized another judiciary plot against the government and showed its true colors in an unprecedented coup attempt. Speaking on the Dec. 25 plot, Chief Prosecutor Ismail Uçar, who foiled the attempt orchestrated by FETÖ, decided not to prosecute and sued the plotters instead, said that the aim was to destroy the Republic of Türkiye.
On Dec. 17, 2013, prosecutors and police chiefs linked to FETÖ made their first move to topple the government in a far-reaching probe targeting ministers and people close to the government under corruption allegations. The probe, which led to arrest warrants, was followed by another operation on Dec. 25 remembered as the first open attack by FETÖ against the government, a chilling action for a country that has suffered from multiple coups.
As Uçar stated, the FETÖ's U.S.-based head Fetullah Gülen personally ordered the operation and his followers in the judiciary followed his orders.
"The aim of this investigation was to seize the government by making a judicial coup with the orders and instructions of the intelligence forces they had behind them, and to destroy the Republic of Türkiye and the system as the ultimate goal. What can a movement allegedly gathered to guide people in the religious field have to do with the military, security and judiciary? The planning of the July 15 coup attempt by the same organization confirms the findings we made in the Dec. 25 file."
Yet, FETÖ would not stop there and, three years later, it tried its hand again to seize power, this time in a more brutal manner. It used its military infiltrators, who slaughtered 251 people resisting them across the country. Since then, Türkiye has stepped up its operations against the terrorist group's members, hunting them down across the country and across the globe. Tens of thousands of people were detained or arrested both after the first attempt in 2013 and after 2016's foiled putsch bid.
The operations on Dec. 17-25, 2013, revealed that FETÖ-linked members of law enforcement and the judiciary had secretly wiretapped people close to the government for three years and concocted evidence by forging audio recordings and documents to attempt to imprison them, with the ultimate purpose of implicating the prime minister in their sham cases. Arrests followed, including the children of four ministers, while Zekeriya Öz, now a fugitive prosecutor wanted on FETÖ membership charges, had told journalists following the operations that they did not have the authority to arrest ministers but would refer the investigation to Parliament.