'Routine' phone call to coup mastermind lands US in hot water

The United States dismissed reports that staff at the U.S. embassy in Istanbul placed a call to Adil Öksüz, a mastermind of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), when the latter went on the run, as something stemming from a "routine procedure" to inform applicants. However, Ankara is still not satisfied with the statement and is urging Washington to display sincerity on the case and deny visas to everyone linked to the terrorist group whose leader resides in Pennsylvania.

Öksüz, a theology lecturer tied to the group, was discovered by investigators to be the planner of the putsch bid, which saw infiltrators from FETÖ in the military attempting to topple the government and kill the president. He was a frequent traveler to the United States - to meet FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen according to the investigators - but his visa to that country was suddenly scrapped after the putsch bid. The U.S. embassy said they moved to cancel his visa after Turkish security forces notified them about his status as a fugitive from justice. The embassy described the phone call placed to Öksüz six days after the coup attempt - and briefly after he was released in a controversial ruling by judges - as a routine procedure for rejected visa applicants. The statement, however, raised new questions as social media users and some journalists questioned why the embassy immediately moved to cancel the visa while Öksüz was not known to be a key figure behind the coup attempt.

Ministers, meanwhile, expressed that they were not satisfied with the embassy's statement and called for "sincerity" on the part of Washington in helping Turkey's efforts against the terror cult, which was implicated in a string of crimes apart from the coup bid.

"I didn't buy it," Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said in a televised interview on Wednesday night about the U.S. statement on phone call to Öksüz. "There should be more to it. Was it really their priority to make that call? We need a more satisfying answer," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in Ankara yesterday to meet Turkish leaders, repeated the U.S. embassy's statement during a press conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, and said it was a routine procedure for the embassy to call applicants about the revocation of their visa.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ, whose ministry handles extradition requests for fugitive members of FETÖ, said yesterday in an interview with A Haber TV that the United States should display "sincerity" on the matter. "It is not about Adil Öksüz only. Many FETÖ members, including its leader, are in the United States and every single of them were granted visas. The United States should cancel their visas so that we will be assured that they sincerely cooperate with us [against FETÖ]," he said.

"Hundreds of FETÖ members are in the United States and we wonder why they did not cancel their visas, their residence permits. The founder and leader of FETÖ freely continues his activities in the United States, without any restrictions. Turkey expects sensitivity and sincerity from the United States on the matter but we have never seen it," Bozdağ said.

The minister underlined that not a single FETÖ suspect had their visa revoked by the United States despite Turkey informing U.S. authorities about the suspects. "I call upon the U.S. authorities to revoke visas and work permits for FETÖ members in the United States and execute our request for temporary detention of Fetullah Gülen [to prevent his escape to a third country]. Please extradite him to Turkey so that we will believe you are cooperating with Turkey by stopping his acts against Turkey," he said, adding that FETÖ still enjoyed "good" support from the United States.

"I don't believe FETÖ managed to have Öksüz flee abroad and he is still somewhere in Turkey," Bozdağ also said in the interview. "If security forces can capture him and if he can be interrogated, it would shed light on many things we are currently in the dark about in regards to the coup attempt," he said.

According to judicial sources, Öksüz was contacted by a mobile phone number registered to the United States embassy in Istanbul. Öksüz's cellphone received the call at 10:22 a.m. on July 21.

The Sabah newspaper reported yesterday that Öksüz bought a flight ticket to the United States prior to the coup and would fly there if authorities failed to find out about his role in the coup attempt. The newspaper also reported that a senior law enforcement official visited Öksüz while he was in detention and the FETÖ suspect was released after the said official had him transferred to another police station.

Eight months after the coup attempt, Öksüz remains at large, while conspiracy theories flourish in his absence. Several media outlets reported he "took shelter" in a building owned by a foreign diplomatic mission, like German journalist Deniz Yücel, who was offered protection by the German embassy while he was on the run from law enforcement for terror-related charges.

Öksüz was initially caught as he was fleeing a military base in the capital of Ankara on July 16 and released two days later by judges. A manhunt was launched after he disappeared following his release, and judges and other officials that participated in his release are still being investigated.

He was found at Akıncı Air Base, where pro-coup troops commanded the coup attempt from, and was then taken into custody, only to be released two days later by judges citing a "lack of evidence."

Turkey placed Öksüz in the "red category" of the most wanted terror suspects, offering up to TL 4 million ($1.1 million) for tip-offs to help his capture, but he is believed to have fled abroad as nationwide searches have failed to locate him.

Prosecutors accuse him of orchestrating the meetings of top generals in an Ankara villa where they planned the coup plot, based on the testimony of secret witnesses who were also present at the meetings. He faces life imprisonment and a number of prison terms for the coup attempt as well as membership of a terrorist group. Hakan Biniş, another "civilian" FETÖ figure, was with Öksüz in the villa during the coup talks, witnesses claimed, along with top generals captured following the coup attempt.

Öksüz has claimed he was near the base to "look for a piece of land he planned to buy," and gave two addresses as his residence during his stay in Ankara after he arrived from the northwestern city of Sakarya where he teaches. The two addresses were found to be houses that have been empty for some time and the evidence revealed after his release showed Öksüz never hired a taxi to take him to an area near the base as he claimed in his initial testimony.

Criminal investigators revealed he frequently traveled to the United States where the terrorist group's leader Fetullah Gülen resides and he was in the company of military officers involved in the coup attempt during his flights. Öksüz also had relatives running companies linked to FETÖ.

Examining flight records from the past 18 years, during which Öksüz made dozens of trips to the United States to meet Gülen, investigators found that he boarded flights on which high-ranking officers involved in the coup were present and avoided suspicion of ties to them by taking seats that were not close to them. The findings reported by the Sabah newspaper based on an inquiry by prosecutors in Ankara shows Öksüz flew to the United States four days after he convened Gülenists in the army in a secret meeting to plan the coup in December 2015 and visited frequently - in March, June and finally a few days before July 15, presumably to receive confirmation from Gülen on his plans to stage the coup - in the company of Kemal Batmaz, another non-military figure of FETÖ who is accused of coordinating FETÖ's coup efforts together with Öksüz at the Akıncı military base on July 15.

Investigators earlier announced that six men in civilian clothes accompanied Öksüz on the flights. One of them was Bünyamin Tuner, a former aide to Yaşar Güler, who was Vice Chief of Staff at the time of the coup. The coup plotters held Güler with other top military brass. Tuner and Öksüz flew to the United States together in June 2015 and returned to Turkey on the same plane. According to a statement by Salih Zeki Çolak, commander of the Turkish Land Forces, Tuner headed the team of pro-coup troops that held him hostage on July 15. Another person who boarded a flight with Öksüz to the United States was Gen. Baki Kavun, who heads the department of operations in the Office of the Chief of Staff. Mehmet Partigöç, a general accused of penning the declaration of the coup plotters, also joined Öksüz on a 2006 flight to the United States.