The unprecedented victory of Turkish democracy: July 15, 2016

By Sedef Yavuzalp

The second anniversary of the thwarted terrorist coup attempt of July 15, 2016, is being commemorated today in Turkey and abroad.

As you all know, FETO terrorist organisation and its leader Fetullah Gülen were the mastermind and perpetrator of this heinous attempt. Gülen and his followers planned and tried to capture the Turkish Republic and did not refrain from using lethal military force against innocent civilians, killing hundreds and wounding thousands.

Two years long investigations and judicial processes on the events of July 15 have produced countless crucial evidence that even on the night of July 15, the plotters were in direct communication with the FETÖ leadership. However, understanding FETO's criminal and terrorist ideology and activities fully, requires a thorough approach, as the crimes committed on the night of July 15, are merely the tip of the iceberg. First and foremost it disguised itself as a religious movement and misused religion to recruit militants from families with conservative backgrounds.

To understand why FETÖ has become number one enemy in Turkey, the enormity of their actions and what the Turkish nation has experienced needs to be understood. In fact, it all started under the guise of a charitable education effort. I would like to emphasize this aspect because that is exactly what this organisation is up to in many countries.

Initially, FETO disguised itself as a benign education movement, when it started the campaign of establishing schools in Turkey and later around the world. But, we now understand that this was the first step of an infiltration campaign where kids and their parents were recruited with the ostensibly innocent promise of a better education and a good job.

These kids were put through school with academic and financial help and heavy indoctrination. They turned into unquestioning foot soldiers of FETÖ. They were assisted to cheat in entrance exams for prominent schools and later for prestigious government jobs. They were instructed to employ concealment tactics while infiltrating state institutions. They were told that, to achieve their main goal of capturing the state, they could ignore all ethical, religious or personal beliefs and practices. Their handlers kept their indoctrination up-to-date and passed on the instructions of their leader. As civil servants or military personnel, their loyalty was not to the nation or to the state they served. They did not care about upholding the constitution or the legal system of Turkey.

The crime organisation behind all this devised and ran an integrated system that carried out recruitment through schools and prep schools; and financing was taken care of by holding companies and donations from business people loyal to FETO.

The organisation established media houses to shape the public opinion for and against any person, group or idea. Many persons in Turkey who saw FETO for what it really was, got lynched through these media houses. These media houses targeted and took actions against journalists, academicians, bureaucrats and military officers who opposed them, or tried to expose them. They were lynched and purged.

As FETO grew stronger and became financially more powerful, it started meddling in business transactions, government tender processes. Laundering enormous sums of money, arranging illegal transfers of cash and other financial crimes became business as usual.

When the Turkish Government finally understood what was actually taking place, FETÖ started taking drastic and extreme actions. The first wave of these actions came in December 2013, when FETO terrorist organisation released a number of illegally wiretapped phone conversations and recordings of top government officials as well as fabricated material. That attack proved inconclusive and provided a wake-up call both to the government and to the public.

Upon discovering their encrypted secret communication systems (ByLock, Eagle, Tango, etc) and interception of their instructions, the Turkish Government started to counter their moves and discover the extent of the infiltration and the infection it caused.

July 15th happened at a time when the Turkish Armed Forces had discovered and listed most of the so-called military personnel who were actually loyal recruits of FETO, and was getting ready to expel them. July 15th was a desperate move to keep their control in place and capture the Turkish state by force. This was no ordinary coup. In none of the coups or coup attempts in the past did putschists open fire on civilians, let alone bomb the Parliament, the State House or the Headquarters of Police and Intelligence.

FETÖ established itself in around 160 countries, with thousands of schools and businesses. Very remarkable for such a so-called religious movement! FETO's actions in Turkey should be considered as a wake-up call for other countries.

We are pleased to note an ever increasing awareness on the part of our friends and partners who have come to realise the serious threat posed by FETÖ. In many regions, the schools and other entities of FETO have been closely inspected and put under state control. In most cases, FETO schools were either banned or transferred to Turkish authorities (Turkey Maarif Foundation).

Investigations into FETÖ structures and FETÖ operatives are under way in many countries. So far, in over 30 countries, hundreds of schools/prep schools have either been banned or transferred to Turkey Maarif Foundation. 80 FETO terrorists in foreign countries have been brought back to Turkey in accordance with Turkey's determined fight against FETO at global scale.

The global crime apparatus of this sui generis terrorist organisation is shrinking. We do hope that FETO establishments in Uganda will be completely and swiftly eradicated. The Turkish Government is ready

to cooperate with the brotherly Ugandan Government on this crucial matter.

Writer is the Ambassador of Turkey to Uganda