Terrorism and Criminal Organisation Accusations
The claim that the foundation's income was collected off the books
Unfounded
Claim
Fact
The claim was raised with the operation of 30 January 2018 and, after the second operation of 7 May 2018, became the main heading of the case file. When the terrorism charges found no support in the investigation, the discussion shifted to financial matters.
The answer to the question lies in the foundation's deed of establishment. The income of foundations and associations is donations; there is no state support, and for institutions doing Islamic work there is none at all. Among the sources of income in the Furkan Foundation's deed, collecting donations from volunteers and recording them and holding charity bazaars are explicitly listed. These are activities subject to the legislation, licensed, and carried out by every foundation in Turkey.
The label "off the books", however, presumes that no records exist. Yet the police had seized the receipts for the donations in the search of 30 January 2018; at the moment the claim was raised, the records were in the hands of the investigation itself.
The foundation was also subject to the routine supervision of the Directorate General of Foundations for twenty-four years. A claim of an off-the-books flow of income also means claiming that none of these inspections saw it; no such finding has been placed in the file.
Where the money goes is likewise an announced place: scholarships, aid campaigns and more than a hundred conferences a year. The cost of the hall, the sound system, the posters and transport belongs to the foundation, and no separate fee is charged to those who attend. The greater part of the donations goes here.
How the amounts voiced in the claim changed within three months has been handled under separate headings: the claim that money gushed out of the safe and the claim of forged receipts and a swindle.
Two operations, one change of heading
In the operation of 30 January 2018, those taken into custody were charged with propaganda for a terrorist organisation and support for a terrorist organisation. These charges were put to them neither in the police interrogation nor at the courthouse; they fell out of the file. Then, on 7 May 2018, a second operation was carried out — even though the terrorism charge had been dropped, this operation too was conducted by the Counter-Terrorism units.
After the second operation, the subject spoken about regarding the foundation changed; now it was money that was being discussed. This matters for the course of the claim itself: if, when one charge falls away, another charge immediately takes its place, the question that must be asked is whether there is a crime at hand or a need for a result.
Where does a foundation get its money?
In Turkey, foundations and associations stand on donations. Those that have members collect dues, those that do not rely on donations and income from charity bazaars. State support is not available for every field; for institutions doing Islamic work there is none at all.
In the Furkan Foundation's deed of establishment, the following are written among the sources of income:
- collecting donations from volunteers and recording them,
- holding charity bazaars.
These are activities subject to the legislation, defined in its deed, and licensed. To present a foundation's collecting of donations as a crime is to present the very concept of a foundation as a crime.
Who holds the records?
Whatever the foundation received, and from whomever, it received as a donation against a receipt. All the documents belonging to the donations were kept in the foundation's building; in the search of 30 January 2018 the police seized them, and after that date the documents remained in the investigation file.
The contradiction here is plain: the claim saying that the income was off the books was itself holding the records of that income in its hands, and did not examine them.
What does "off the books" mean?
How grave this label is usually goes unnoticed. If a foundation's income is off the books, there is a single authority that ought to see it: the Directorate General of Foundations, charged with supervising foundations. Foundations file an annual declaration, their accounts are examined, and when necessary an inspector is assigned.
The Furkan Foundation was within this supervision from 1994 to 2018 and was also the subject of an inspector's examination. A claim of an off-the-books flow of income indirectly claims this as well: that none of the inspections carried out over twenty-four years saw it. Yet no audit finding that would support this grave claim has been placed in the file.
In short, the claim was built without ever consulting the records of the only institution that could have confirmed it.
Where does the money go?
The places where the collected donations are spent are not hidden but announced places: scholarships, conferences, panels, talks, aid campaigns. More than a hundred conferences are held a year; for a conference attended by thousands, the cost of the hall, the sound system, the posters and transport belongs to the foundation, and no separate fee is charged to those who attend. The greater part of the donations goes here.
If it is visible where an institution spends its income, it becomes difficult to say that this income is being hidden. The students given scholarships are known, the posters of the conferences have been printed, the place and date of the charity bazaar have been announced.
The figure did not stay fixed
The claim's own amount also changed three times within three months. It will not be repeated on this page; the course of the figures and the news reports they rest on have been handled with their documents under the headings the claim that money gushed out of the safe and the claim of forged receipts and a swindle.
The only point that must be recorded here is this: the great majority of the outlets that ran the first two figures as headlines never touched the highest figure. That a claim is not carried even by its own carriers is the clearest sign that the claim is without documents.
The dates on this page belong to the process opened with the operation of 30 January 2018 and should not be confused with another, ongoing judicial process.