The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) attempted to kill President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a medical surgery in 2012, a FETÖ member told Turkish prosecutors.
Hüseyin Sarıçiçek, who confessed after the Dec. 17-25 coup attempt in 2013 and handed over 200 secret documents to İzmir Deputy Chief Prosecutor Okan Bato, said the organization planned to kill Erdoğan when he was scheduled for medical surgery on February 7, 2012.
Pro-FETÖ prosecutors had plotted a civil coup attempt on December 17 and December 25, 2013, under the guise of a so-called graft probe against some senior government officers. The incident is known as the Dec. 17-25 coup attempt as the main target of the attempt to detain the then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
According to Sarıçiçek's statement, “It was Feb. 7, the day of the MIT-Judiciary crisis. The organization's Aegean regional Imam Necdet İçel, one from Fetullah Gülen's six-person secret team had called me. He asked me to pick up a colonel from the bus station and drive to the ranch in Torbalı. I drove the colonel to the ranch."
“Meanwhile, I noticed that Necdet İçel had shouted to a 4th class police commissioner and attacked him in the garden. 'How could he not enter the operation theater? For God's sake, who woke this man up? How come he couldn't die?' he shouted."
Sarıçiçek said he later had learnt that the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan changed his decision and decided not to have an operation at the last moment.
“It was then that I understood that the organization (FETÖ) would kill Erdoğan on the operation table," he added.
Sarıçiçek noted that Necdet İçel had travelled to the U.S. shortly before Feb. 7 and Dec. 17-25.
He also explained FETÖ terror group's secret activities in the military and police departments.
“The organization had taken special care of military academy students. These students were being spiritually satisfied by Fetullah Gülen, as he called them 'you are the first I pray for'."
Sarıçicek told prosecutors that these students were trained how to hide themselves (their links to FETÖ) and how to perform prayer only with their eyes during their time in the military academy.
“FETÖ Imams (leader) committed graft while they were collecting donations from the public. I myself had understood their grafts. Then pro-FETÖ prosecutor Fatih Genç, who had been investigating Ogün Samast for the Hrant Dink murder case, had included my name in another murder case and threatened me 'don't mess with Police Imams'. I was compelled to accept; however, Genç was detained under the FETÖ investigation.
“The most dangerous FETÖ unit is the Counter-Intelligence Unit (İKK). Members of this unit disguise themselves by camouflaging with long hair and wearing earrings. They use fine art faculties in the universities as their base. They can tape record, blackmail and plot in very professional ways.
“I received many telephone threats after submitting documents to prosecutor Bato. Pro-FETÖ police raided my house twice.
“Head of the Intelligence Department of the Chief of General Staff Mustafa Özsoy, who had been detained after the coup attempt, was one of the most dangerous [FETÖ members] persons in the Turkish Armed Forces. He frequently met with Necdet İçel."
