Turkey was planning anti-Gulen purge before coup, minister claims

Turkey's energy minister - and son-in-law of President Erdogan - said authorities were planning to remove elements in the military linked to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen before the attempted coup.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab & agencies

27 July, 2016

Minister Berat Albayrak suggested parts of the military wanted to act against the government [Getty]

Turkish authorities were planning a major shake-up of the military to remove elements linked to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen just before July's failed coup, a key minister said Wednesday.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, suggested parts of the military had wanted to act against the government when they discovered they were about to be purged.

Albayrak, who was with Erdogan throughout the night of the botched putsch on 15 July, said the president had first been warned about the coup by a civilian and it was only later that the gravity of the situation become clear.

In his first meeting with foreign reporters since the coup, Albayrak revealed that Turkey's Supreme Military Council had been planning to meet in summer to expel all officers linked to Gulen, who Turkey blames for masterminding the putsch.

"They were going to take really important steps to remove Gulenist officers and generals from the armed forces. We were already working on this."

He said this would have been part of a general purge against pro-Gulen elements that would have also extended to the legal system and other institutions.

"These people [linked to Gulen] were detected and the related lists had been conveyed to the line ministries."

He added: "After they [the plotters] realised things were going like this, at their last breath, they took their final step [the coup]."

He said only a small proportion of the NATO member's 750,000-strong military supported the coup but alleged pro-Gulen figures had successfully infiltrated the high and middle ranks in large numbers.

"If we are speaking especially at the level of general[s] we understand the level of the problem."

Albayrak, who is married to Erdogan's eldest daughter Esra, was with the president at the holiday resort of Marmaris in southwestern Turkey when they received news of the coup.

"We received the first phone call from a civilian from the Istanbul area - you cannot rationalise something based on one phone call," he said.

It was only after Erdogan could not reach important figures like chief of staff Hulusi Akar - who had been abducted - that the gravity of the situation became clear.

"We had phone calls with ministers and we realised this was not a simple thing but a coordinated coup d'etat," Albayrak said.