FETÖ and Gülen Community Claims
The "He made propaganda for FETÖ" claim
Unfounded
Claim
Fact
The subject is the file opened with the operation of 30 January 2018, continued with the arrest on 8 February 2018 and ending with the release on 5 December 2019. The indictment of this file was completed in July 2018 and it contained the charge of making propaganda for a terrorist organization.
The contradiction does not stand opposite the claim, it stands inside that very same file. The following documents are in the file:
- The letter of the Adana Provincial Police Directorate dated 15 March 2017. The conclusion it reaches about Kuytul and the Furkan Foundation is, in the letter's own words, this: no information or document could be obtained showing that he has any involvement, contact or association with FETÖ/PDY.
- The investigation report of the Antalya TEM Branch Directorate. No record was found under any of the headings queried.
For a propaganda charge to stand, the link with the organization for which the propaganda is said to have been made must be shown. In the case of FETÖ that link could not be shown: while the indictment says propaganda, the police documents in the same file write that there is no contact.
The records confirm this too. Kuytul openly criticized the Gülen movement from the 1990s onwards; these criticisms were put on record even in the period when the movement was at its strongest. No one can have made propaganda for a structure they stood against for twenty years.
The course of the file
Every date on this page belongs to a single file:
- 30 January 2018 — the operation is carried out.
- 8 February 2018 — Kuytul is arrested on the ground of membership of a terrorist organization.
- July 2018 — the indictment of the file, which involves nine detainees, is completed.
- 23 September 2018 — the police intelligence report in the file is made public by lawyer Adem Tural.
- 3 October 2018 — the police investigation reports in the file are published.
- 5 December 2019 — Kuytul is released.
The indictment itself did not proceed smoothly either. The 11th High Criminal Court returned the indictment; upon the objection of the prosecution it had to be accepted. The court later issued a severance decision and declared itself without jurisdiction as regards the charges other than terrorist propaganda, and that part of the file went to the 4th High Criminal Court. As of September 2018 the hearing date was still not known.
The file's own documents
The file carrying the propaganda charge was at the same time carrying these documents as well:
- The letter of the Adana Provincial Police Directorate dated 15 March 2017 — the queries on ByLock record, Bank Asya account activity, membership in closed-down associations, hotel stay and telephone contact with suspects all came back without result.
- The investigation report of the Tip Assessment Commission of the Antalya TEM Branch Directorate — there is no record under any of the headings queried.
The details of these documents are on the page the claim of a FETÖ connection.
What items are in the intelligence report?
The intelligence report made public on 23 September 2018 is important for seeing the ground on which the indictment rests. The headings listed about Kuytul in the report are these: that in his talks published in open sources he makes statements against secularism and democracy; that he frequently criticizes the President, the government and state policies; that he does not adopt the Salafi and takfiri understanding; that he does not consider it right to go to conflict zones; and that some people of this understanding show interest in the foundation's talks.
We give the list in full, because when the whole of it is read it says more. The first two items are not a criminal accusation but a finding of opinion: a person's criticizing secularism and democracy and their criticizing the government can be put on record, but cannot be counted as a crime.
What really matters is this: there is not a single item in this list concerning FETÖ. What is more, two of the items are material for the defense, not for the accusation — the report itself put on record that Kuytul does not adopt the takfiri understanding and does not consider it right to go to conflict zones. How the last item was used is a separate heading: the claim built on the people who attend the talks.
Where the report ends up is clear as well. After all these items are listed, the document sets down its one-sentence conclusion about the Furkan Foundation: it was reported that no connection with any terrorist organization could be found.
Whose propaganda is the propaganda?
Propaganda for a terrorist organization is by definition tied to a specific organization: it must be shown which organization, which act or which statement was praised. As regards FETÖ, the subject of this page, that link could not be established — and moreover, what writes that it could not be established is not the defense but the file's own police letters.
The material that remains is speeches. But the speeches listed in the intelligence report are criticisms directed at the government and state policies; they are not words spoken in favor of an organization.
The practice in prison
According to the foundation's statements of that period, Kuytul was subjected in prison to the regime provided for FETÖ members and remained for a long time in conditions of isolation. The picture is this: the connection that could not be found in the official documents was assumed to exist from the outset in practice.
Conclusion
The rating is "Unfounded". The reason for this is not only counter-evidence brought from outside, but the file's own internal contradiction: a single investigation file carries at the same time both the police documents writing that no link whatsoever with FETÖ could be found and the propaganda charge. If a claim has been refuted in its own file, no further evidence is needed.
All the documents and dates on this page belong to the file opened with the operation of 30 January 2018 and ending with the release on 5 December 2019.