Terrorism and Criminal Organisation Accusations
The claim of a connection with the United Arab Emirates and Egypt
Unfounded
Claim
Fact
The claim appeared in the last sentence of a report dated 31 January 2018, the day after the Adana operation of 30 January 2018: it was learned that the organisation's connections with the United Arab Emirates and Egypt were also being investigated.
The sentence has to be read slowly, because in fact it says nothing at all:
- It does not write that a connection has been found; it writes that something is being investigated. Investigating is a process, finding is a result.
- It does not say who is investigating. By saying "it was learned" it does not name its source either.
- In this form it cannot be falsified. It is impossible to prove that an institution has not looked into a subject; so there is no sentence to be corrected either.
The outcome, on the other hand, can be measured. The investigation began in 2016, the indictment was completed at the end of 2018, and the trial opened on 22 January 2019. At no stage of this process did a document concerning a connection with a foreign country enter the file. The charges in the indictment were something else entirely: propaganda for a terrorist organisation, forming a criminal organisation, and fraud.
The Furkan Foundation was founded in Adana on 22 November 1994; it has branches in 33 provinces and holds both its conferences and its charity fairs in public. In its statement of 6 January 2019 the foundation separately announced that it had no tie with any foreign country.
The only thing left over is the impression that remains in the mind of whoever read that sentence. And that is precisely the work the sentence does.
What was the sentence?
On the morning of 30 January 2018 simultaneous operations were carried out in Adana against the Furkan Foundation and Alparslan Kuytul's home. The report that appeared the following day, on 31 January 2018, described the basement floor of the foundation's building as a cellar and the houses where students lived as an unlicensed hostel, and ended with this sentence:
... While it is claimed that the social media and internet accounts belonging to the Furkan Foundation were run over a fibre network laid to the unlicensed hostel, it was learned that the organisation's connections with the United Arab Emirates and Egypt were also being investigated.
Why does the sentence "is being investigated" work?
If a report writes that something has been found, it will be asked for its document; if it turns out not to have been found, a correction is required. The sentence "is being investigated" escapes both of these burdens:
- It requires no evidence. That a subject has been looked into confirms the sentence; and since no source is named, the fact that it was not looked into does not falsify it.
- It requires no correction. When the investigation comes to nothing, the report cannot be called false; it is merely said to be "unconcluded".
- But it leaves a mark on the reader. A week later the person who read the report remembers not "it was being investigated" but "there was a connection".
That is, the sentence produces the entire effect of a claim while carrying none of the responsibility a claim ought to carry.
What became of the other two claims in the same sentence?
This distinction is not abstract. The fate of three claims standing side by side in the same place in the same report shows the difference:
- The cellar. The place referred to is a study centre opened in 2014 with SODES funding through the provincial governor's office, with its sign hanging at the entrance and inspected by the ministry. The detail is under a separate heading.
- The unlicensed hostel. A court ruling established that the sealed houses did not belong to the foundation but were private dwellings, and the seals were lifted.
- The United Arab Emirates and Egypt. It was neither confirmed by a document nor closed by a decision.
The first two were closed by documents and by a court ruling. The third was not closed — it could not be, because it had never been opened.
What is in the file?
The investigation was opened in 2016, became visible with the operation of 30 January 2018, and Alparslan Kuytul was arrested on 8 February 2018. The indictment was completed at the end of 2018 and the trial opened on 22 January 2019. Kuytul was released from the terrorism charge on 5 December 2019.
In this three-year file not one document appeared concerning a connection with a foreign state, institution or structure. The headings on which the indictment rested were propaganda for a terrorist organisation, forming a criminal organisation, and fraud; a foreign connection appeared in none of them. The sentence written once on 31 January 2018 never occurred in any official text again.
What did the foundation say?
In its public statement of 6 January 2019 the Furkan Foundation opened a separate heading for this claim and announced that it had no tie with any foreign country or with any centre of power. The foundation has worked out of Adana since 1994, has branches in 33 provinces and carries out its activities openly; in 2013 and 2014 it received plaques from the police and from various neighbourhood headmen in Adana.
A claim of foreign connections about a body that works behind closed doors is hard to refute. About an institution that has been visible for more than twenty years in halls, in squares and at charity fairs, everyone who knows that institution knows there is nothing behind such a claim.
The information on this page belongs to the operation of 30 January 2018 and to the 2018–2019 file that followed it. It should not be confused with another, ongoing judicial process.