Terrorism and Criminal Organisation Accusations
The claim that he was a member of four terrorist organisations at the same time
Unfounded
Claim
Fact
The matter is the terrorism file opened with the operation of 30 January 2018. Alparslan Kuytul was arrested on 8 February 2018; the first accusation at the Criminal Judgeship of Peace was membership of four separate terrorist organisations — FETÖ, PKK, PYD and ISIS — at the same time.
These four structures are enemies of one another. The PKK and the PYD fought ISIS in the field in Syria; the others too regard the takfiri line of ISIS as illegitimate; neither the structure nor the aim of FETÖ overlaps with the others. It is not possible for one person to be a member of all four at once.
The accusation was empty inside as well. From Kuytul's defence statement dated 4 July 2019:
"It began first with membership of 4 organisations. They charged us with this at the Criminal Judgeship of Peace. At that time they did not even say their names."
In the same investigation file there stood state documents recording that no connection with any of these organisations had been found: the Adana TEM research report dated 9 January 2017, the reply of the MİT Intelligence Department, and the KOM examination dated 15 March 2017 carried out with regard to FETÖ.
The charge melted away on its way to the indictment. The prosecution first reduced the number of organisations from four to two, and then, in the final indictment prepared in July 2018, withdrew all of the membership charges. A single accusation remained: propaganda for a terrorist organisation. Kuytul was released in this file on 5 December 2019.
This claim was voiced again on 7 September 2026 on the CNN Türk programme "Tarafsız Bölge". The collective answer to the imputations listed on the programme: Cübbeli Ahmet's claims about the Furkan Movement on CNN Türk — the Furkan Movement's full statement text.
How the accusation was born
In the operation carried out in Adana on the morning of 30 January 2018, Kuytul's home and the Furkan Foundation building were entered simultaneously; 24 people were taken into custody. Kuytul was arrested on 8 February 2018 and sent to Bolu F-Type Prison. The accusation taken as the basis for the arrest was membership of four terrorist organisations at once: FETÖ, PKK, PYD and ISIS.
The four are enemies of one another
The most easily seen flaw in the charge is that the organisations listed have no common roof:
- The PKK and the PYD on one side and ISIS on the other are sides that fought face to face in Syria.
- The takfiri line of ISIS is a stance that the other three too regard as illegitimate.
- The structure, the method and the aim of FETÖ are compatible with none of the others.
To assert that one person is a member of all four of these at the same time is in fact to admit that it is not known which organisation the charge relates to.
The organisations had not even been named
In the defence statement he made at the Adana 11th High Criminal Court on 4 July 2019, Kuytul described the moment of the arrest: while he was being accused of membership of four organisations, the names of the organisations were not said.
"It began first with membership of 4 organisations. They charged us with this at the Criminal Judgeship of Peace. At that time they did not even say their names."
Semra Kuytul, looking at the same void from the outside, said this on 15 July 2018: four separate organisations are going around at the same time, but not one of them has been able to be named. Membership of an organisation that cannot be named is not a charge but a void.
The special case of the ISIS accusation
Among the four names, the one that collapsed most easily was ISIS. In the lesson The Boundary Between Faith and Unbelief, which he began on 26 March 2012, Kuytul dealt with takfirism over eleven parts and roughly twenty-five hours, and explained that this understanding serves to make Muslims slaughter one another. The same finding is recorded in the intelligence letter in the investigation file as well: he does not espouse the Salafi and takfiri outlook.
This criticism has had a price too. Kuytul has received threats from ISIS many times, and his name has appeared on the death list in the magazine the organisation published on the internet. A name on an organisation's death list cannot be counted a member of that same organisation.
What the file's own documents said
While the accusation of four organisations was being put forward, state letters recording that no connection with any of them had been found were already inside the investigation file. The Adana TEM research report dated 9 January 2017 had assessed that no connection with any terrorist organisation had been found in respect of the foundation and the 44 people making up its founders and its board of trustees. The reply of the MİT Intelligence Department was in the same direction. And in the KOM examination dated 15 March 2017, carried out separately with regard to FETÖ, no ByLock record, membership of a closed-down association or Bank Asya account activity could be found.
How the charge melted away
The accusation shrank on its way to the indictment. The prosecution first reduced the number of organisations from four to two; then, in the final indictment prepared in July 2018, it withdrew all of the membership charges. What remained was only propaganda for a terrorist organisation.
Kuytul's answer to this was a simple question of logic:
"I mean, why would a person make propaganda for a terrorist organisation without being a member of it? Is he mad? Even those who are of them cannot make propaganda, out of fear."
Conclusion
The claim of membership of four organisations could neither be based on a document nor maintained in court. At the hearing of 4 July 2019 Kuytul had been in detention for seventeen months, and he was released on 5 December 2019.
A single question remains: how did four organisations hostile to one another enter an arrest decision without their names being said?
Related topics: the claim of a connection with a terrorist organisation — the TEM, MİT and KOM documents in the file; the claim of terrorism propaganda — the single accusation left after membership fell away. All the dates on this page belong to the 2012–2019 range.