ISTANBUL: Prosecutors have launched an investigation into an opposition MP’s claim that Turkish dissidents in Europe would be the target of assassination plots, the private Dogan news agency reported on Friday.
Garo Paylan, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), on Wednesday claimed that he received intelligence about assassination plots targeting Turkish citizens in Europe, and in particular in Germany.
“I received intelligence last week of assassination plans or a wave of assassinations targeting our citizens in Europe, especially those living in Germany, information that I confirmed via multiple sources,” he told a news conference in Parliament.
Ankara has launched a massive crackdown in the wake of failed July 15, 2016 coup which Turkey blames on US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has denied any role.
Since then, over 55,000 people have been arrested over alleged links to Gulen and the coup bid while more than 140,000 public sector employees have been suspended or sacked in a purge which has raised concern in the West.
Critics have branded the government measures as excessive, saying they have gone well beyond alleged coup plotters and extended to government opponents.
Many Turks have sought asylum in Germany, which is already home to a sizeable Turkish community. Berlin has publicly criticized Turkey’s mass crackdown.
Paylan claimed that thousands of academics and journalists were forced to leave Europe as they were labelled “traitors” by the government — rhetoric which he said prompted “certain quarters to take action.”
He also said that plotters had a list of people who would be assassinated, adding that he had informed Turkish intelligence and the police about the tip-off.
Paylan has now been “invited by the Ankara chief public prosecutor’s office to be listened to as a witness,” Dogan reported.
There was no immediate reaction from the government on Paylan’s claims.
15 senior military
officers held
In a related development, Turkish police arrested 15 senior military officers in an investigation into the network of a US-based cleric who Ankara accuses of orchestrating last year’s attempted coup, state-run Anadolu news agency said on Friday.
It said police were seeking one more officer in the operation, focused on the capital Ankara and spread across nine provinces, adding that 12 of the total 16 suspects were serving officers.
Among the suspects were seven colonels and nine lieutenant colonels from Turkey’s gendarmerie force, which maintains security in rural areas, the Hurriyet news website said.
More than 50,000 people, including security personnel and civil servants, have been jailed pending trial in the aftermath of the failed putsch, which the government blames on Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied involvement.
Some 150,000 people have also been suspended or dismissed in a crackdown which rights groups say has been used as a pretext to muzzle dissent but which the government says has been necessary due to the security threats Turkey faces.
Police operations targeting alleged followers of Gulen have been conducted on a near daily basis since the coup attempt in July 2016, and authorities issued arrest warrants for 44 teachers on Friday, Anadolu said.
The suspects were former teachers at Gulen-linked schools which were previously closed by state decree, Anadolu said. Twenty-eight of the teachers were arrested so far.
Schools linked to Gulen’s network have been established across Asia, Africa and the United States and since the putsch, Turkey has asked countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan to close them down.
