Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Gulen did not order Turkey coup, EU spies say

  • Fethullah Gulen fled Turkey in 1999 (Photo: Reuters)

Exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen did not order the coup in Turkey, a leaked document from EU intelligence services says.

The document, written by the EU’s intelligence-sharing unit, Intcen, also says a post-coup purge of supposed Gulen supporters led by president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was designed to deepen his grip on power.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Erdogan had prepared the post-coup crackdown well in advace (Photo: Reuters)

The revelations shed light on the EU’s reaction to the failed coup, and show how Europe's intelligence agencies regard Gulen as the “master” of an “anti-Semitic and anti-Christian” movement.

They also put an unwelcome spotlight on Intcen.

“It is likely that a group of officers comprising Gulenists, Kemalists, opponents of the AKP, and opportunists was behind the coup. It is unlikely that Gulen himself played a role,” the document said.

“It is unlikely that Gulen really had the capabilities and capacities to take such steps.”

Kemalists are secularist Turks who oppose the Islamist views of Erdogan’s AKP political party.

The EU intelligence report said individual Gulenist military officers, who did not rank above lieutenant or captain, might have felt “under pressure” to join the coup attempt in July because they knew that Erdogan had anyway planned to go after them in August.

The report said his “upcoming purge” would have seen them being prosecuted for terrorist offences.

The EU report said Erdogan was trying to dismantle Gulen’s movement in Turkey because it was his “one and only real rival” in his bid to rule the country via “a full presidential system”.

It also said he “exploited” the coup to launch a wider “repressive campaign against the opponents of the AKP” for the sake of “personal ambitions”.

It said that the MIT, Turkey’s intelligence service, began compiling lists of “troublesome individuals” years ago.

It said the lists also contained the names of “civil activists” who took part in anti-Erdogan protests in Gezi Park, Istanbul, in 2013.

“The huge wave of arrests in the days following the coup attempt was already previously prepared. The coup was just a catalyst for the crackdown prepared in advance,” the intelligence report said.

Lukewarm EU

Intcen is a branch of the EU foreign service in which seconded intelligence officers from EU states share information.

It filed the six-page report, entitled Turkey - The Impact of the Gulenist Movement, on 24 August last year to senior EU officials and to member states’ ambassadors in Brussels.

The classified document was first uncovered by The Times, a British newspaper, on Tuesday (17 January).

The views in the leaked document, also seen by EUobserver, were repeated almost word for word by Johannes Hahn, the EU commissioner dealing with Turkey, in his reaction to the coup.

He said at the time that it looked “like something that had been prepared. That the lists [of alleged Gulenists] are available [so soon] after the events indicates that this was prepared and that at a certain moment it should be used”.

Subsequent EU statements were also lukewarm toward Erdogan.

The bloc called for restraint, especially when his purge spread to opposition MPs and the media, prompting furious responses from the Turkish president.

The master

The EU leak comes at a time when Turkey is asking the US to extradite Gulen.

Although the intelligence report exonerated him over the coup, it did not paint him in a favourable light.

The report said teachings published in his name “on the surface … propagate tolerance”, but “at the same time, Islamic scholars expert in usage of language and symbols recognise that they are expressly anti-Semitic and anti-Christian”.

It said Gulen was the “master” of a “worldwide” structure that had branches in some 100 countries in Europe, north and South America, Asia, and Africa.

It said his “orders” were “enforced” by “special imams” and by “convinced” followers who “infiltrated” state institutions.

It said Gulenists had 160 elite schools around the world where they groomed students.

It said the best students were offered special teaching sessions, called Houses of Light, “in the evening … in apartments, to small groups without state control”.

Leak fallout

The leak is an embarrassment for the EU foreign service at a time when it is trying to galvanise EU security cooperation.

The Intcen report was marked “confidential”, meaning, in the EU’s own literature, that it could prompt "formal protest or other sanctions" by non-EU countries and "damage" EU "security or intelligence operations" if it got out.

The document did not reveal its sources, and used formulas such as "according to intelligence", but it was marked “not releasable and not to be disclosed to third states and international organisations”.

It was meant to be sent via encrypted channels or kept in paper form in “secure conditions”.

Its disclosure could harm EU-Turkey and US-Turkey relations at a time when Erdogan is building closer ties with Russia.

It could also harm Intcen, if member states stop trusting the EU office to keep their secrets.

EU mulls Turkey-type migrant deal with Libya

The Maltese EU presidency said a "similar approach" to the Turkey deal could stop migrants coming from Libya, but the UN said the plan was a non-starter.

Gulen faithful at work in EU capital

Persecuted in Turkey as the alleged authors of the July putsch, the followers of Islamic teacher Fethullah Gulen are highly active in the EU capital.

Interview

'Don't push Turkey away', says writer Elif Shafak

Novelist and essayist Elif Shafak said that isolating Turkey would "play into the hands of populism" and that liberals everywhere should defend their values with "emotional intelligence".

German-Turkish tensions rise over cancelled campaign events

Two German towns cancelled campaign events by Turkish ministers to rally support for Erdogan's consitutional reform amid escalating tensions between the two countries over the detention of a prominent German-Turkish journalist.

Opinion

How to handle Erdogan's constitutional coup

An EU statement should say that under Erdogan's new constitution, Turkey no longer meets entry criteria and accession talks should be suspended.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us