Temel Alsancak, a suspect accused of ordering the killing of Andrei Karlov, Russian ambassador in Ankara, was sighted in the United States, a report by the Sabah newspaper says.
The suspect, also known by his alias Kadir, is a member of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which was behind the 2016 murder in the Turkish capital. Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, an off-duty police officer who was instructed to kill Karlov during an exhibition according to an investigation, was killed in a shootout with police.
Alsancak, who was believed to have fled into Germany after the murder, was spotted in Dallas, Texas, an investigative report by Sabah says. He was identified as the “secret imam” of FETÖ in charge of law enforcement. “Secret imam” is a term used in FETÖ jargon for the main handlers of its infiltrators in any given institution. The terrorist group is known for its widespread infiltration everywhere, from the army and judiciary to law enforcement for decades, before it attempted to topple the government in 2013 first and in 2016.
He is now living in a posh home in Dallas he bought in 2021 for $817,000, the report in Sabah says. It also says that Alsancak was found living between 2018 and 2021 in another location in the city. The report says Alsancak runs several “front companies” registered in the name of his wife and daughter and his last known company was closed last March. Sabah’s investigation showed that Alsancak was involved in setting up front companies to help fellow fugitive members of the terrorist group seeking work permits in the U.S. and had them “recruited” by those front companies as well as the purpose of hiding his tracks in the U.S.
Karlov’s murder, which sought to destabilize improving ties between Türkiye and Russia, was the work of a FETÖ network, a criminal investigation into the murder has revealed. Vehbi Kürşat Akalın, a former intelligence officer linked to FETÖ was accused of orchestrating the murder plot and surveillance prior to the assassination. Akalın was sentenced to an aggravated life sentence, plus 15 years, for his role in the murder in a trial concluded in 2021, on charges of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” (a charge commonly defined as such in terrorism cases) and “assisting in the assassination.” Akalın was accused of conveying surveillance information to Hüseyin Kötüce, a civil servant and another FETÖ member, who was handed the same prison sentence as Akalın. Alsancak, along with fellow “imams” Cemal Karaata, Atilla Öztürk and journalist Abdullah Bozkurt, were members of the same network. Bozkurt, another FETÖ fugitive, currently lives in Sweden.
Alsancak is described as an extremely cautious man by Turkish investigators who probed his role in the law enforcement infiltrators of FETÖ earlier. His exact contacts in the terrorist group or elsewhere are not fully known as he never used a cellphone registered in his name, making it difficult to track him down for investigators. However, an investigation by Turkish police discovered him among users of Bylock, an encrypted messaging app developed and exclusively used by the terrorist group members. Investigators also traced him through his accounts in Bank Asya, a now-defunct lender owned by members of FETÖ.
Throughout his “tenure” in FETÖ, Alsancak used several aliases including Kadir, Cemal, Ertuğrul and Asım. He was appointed by the leadership of FETÖ in August 2016 as the “secret imam” of law enforcement, succeeding Hamza Sevinç who he worked together for years. He is also known for his close ties to Osman Hilmi Özdil, another fugitive member of the terrorist group who long operated FETÖ cells in law enforcement. His role in the assassination of Karlov was defined as relaying the “order of execution” to Murat Tokay, another fugitive FETÖ member, who, in turn, conveyed the order to Altıntaş.
The indictment against the defendants in the Karlov murder case says FETÖ tried to undermine Turkish-Russian relations and create a perception that Türkiye was an unsafe place for diplomats. FETÖ originally instructed Altıntaş to shoot Karlov in June 2016 at the headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) where the ambassador would attend a dinner for foreign diplomats, the prosecutor says. Karlov was unable to attend the dinner that would take place one month before FETÖ’s coup attempt that killed 251 people. The prosecutor says the assassination attempt before the planned coup would be “a step to incite chaos in the country to pave the way for a takeover by putschists. It would also instigate a conflict between Türkiye and Russia.”
Prosecutors had detailed Altıntaş’s connections to FETÖ in the indictment, including multiple meetings before the assassination and the same day between Söğüt and Altıntaş. The prosecutors also highlighted the connections of the other suspects to senior FETÖ member Şerif Ali Tekalan, a fugitive defendant who is currently serving as the president of a U.S. university run by FETÖ. Emre Uslu, a journalist who fled to the U.S. after an arrest warrant was issued by Türkiye in a separate case related to the terrorist group, is accused of suppressing suspicion over FETÖ's role in the murder on social media. A separate trial was ordered for Tekalan, Alsancak and other fugitive names in the case.
The assassination came at a time when Turkish and Russian relations seemed to be thawing. Since the murder, Ankara and Moscow have gradually made progress in rebuilding their ties which were disrupted by the 2015 downing of a Russian fighter jet over the Syrian border by the Turkish military.
FETÖ posed as a religious group for years under the leadership of Fetullah Gülen before it disclosed its true intention of toppling the government and creating chaos in the country in 2013 with two plots targeting people close to the government. Türkiye managed to stave off these attempts and launched operations against the group, which was designated as a national security threat. In 2016, the terrorist group tried to seize power again, this time by staging a coup attempt with the aid of its infiltrators in the Turkish army. This attempt was quelled too, and the group faced heightened scrutiny. Police have launched countless operations against the group since the 2016 coup attempt and hundreds of military infiltrators were discovered and arrested in investigations, while tens of thousands were arrested for links to the group. The state of emergency declared after the coup attempt sped up the crackdown on the terrorist group's infiltrators. Some FETÖ members managed to flee abroad, while others are believed to still be hiding their ties to the group. Several former members confessed to authorities that senior figures of the group trained them on how to avoid being detected while serving in the army, law enforcement or judiciary.
An unknown number of FETÖ members, mostly high-ranking figures, fled Türkiye when the coup attempt in 2016 was thwarted. Most had already left the country prior to the coup attempt after Turkish prosecutors launched investigations into other crimes of the terrorist group. Despite Türkiye’s extradition requests and bilateral legal agreements, many FETÖ members still freely enjoy their lives in different countries around the world. In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Türkiye has sped up extradition processes for members of FETÖ abroad.
Earlier this year, then Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu reiterated Türkiye’s call for the U.S. to take action against FETÖ, in a speech in Houston, Texas where he met the Turkish American community. The minister said the FBI has had ongoing investigations in connection with FETÖ's activities in several U.S. states and added that officials with the U.S. investigative bureau traveled to Ankara and provided their counterparts with information about their work.
"The FBI told us they saw the dark side of the FETÖ terrorist organization and that they resorted to all kinds of methods, including human smuggling, irregularities in visas and money laundering," said Çavuşoğlu. "I hope the entire U.S. will see what FETÖ is at the end of these investigations," he added.
The terrorist group’s leader Fetullah Gülen, who left Türkiye in 1999 for the U.S., now lives in a lavish compound owned by a foundation associated with the terrorist group in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, while Cevdet Türkyolu, one of his lieutenants, is also in the U.S. along with Gülen’s doctor, Kudret Ünal. Other prominent figures from the group, such as journalists Ekrem Dumanlı and Emre Uslu, former footballer Hakan Şükür and businessperson Ihsan Kalkavan also reside in the country. Türkiye has issued multiple extradition requests to the U.S. for Gülen, but despite close relations between the two countries, Washington did not take any action yet. Türkiye has also sought a preventive arrest to keep Gülen in the U.S. after reports emerged that the terrorist leader was planning to flee to another country.
