Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kamran Hasanov
[REGNUM] On May 15, media reports appeared about the prevention of a conspiracy in Turkey. The purpose of the conspiracy is declared to be the overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But very few details of this event are known. So what really happened there?
 I ran a quick internet search on Turkey, as well as looking through the Daily Mail, the New York Post, Breitbart, the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post’s breaking news feed., and Rudaw. I found nothing about a plot against the Erdogan government. While this does not mean nothing happened, Hurriyet became a government mouthpiece during the Gulen nonsense back in 2015 or so.
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What is known is that Erdogan’s conspiracy was warned by his junior coalition partner, the head of the nationalist party MHP Devlet Bahçeli. The threads of the conspiracy lead to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where the day before there were arrests of three employees allegedly associated with a certain mafia group of crime boss Ayhan Bor Kaplan.
Kaplan himself is in prison on two high-profile charges. According to opposition media, Kaplan once collaborated with former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Suleyman Soylu. They say that during the coup attempt in 2016, Soylu called Kaplan and asked him to come to the aid of the president. The mafia leader gathered people with weapons and arrived at the building of the TRT television channel.
Kaplan himself did not play the main role this time.
All the fuss about the conspiracy, as the Hurriyet newspaper wrote, began with the arrest of Serdar Serçelik, one of the main witnesses in the case against Kaplan. Sertcelik himself was also accused of involvement in an organized crime group. Unlike Kapan, Sertchelik managed to escape from the country, and, once free, he said that senior members of the Police Department for Combating Organized Crime Groups sought from him to testify against former and current members of the government from Erdogan’s AKP and MHP parties.
It is still unknown which official was extorted against, but the media point to the name Soylu and that episode of cooperation between him and Kaplan during the attempted military putsch. The testimony that these high-ranking security officials tried to obtain was then supposed to be used to prepare a coup.
After Sertchelik’s testimony, a purge began in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya ordered an investigation into Ankara Deputy Police Chief for Combating Organized Crime Murat Çelik, Head of the Anti-Organized Crime Department Kerem Gökay Öner and his deputy Şevket Demirkan.
However, according to Erdogan’s ally Bahçeli, the problem cannot be solved with one or two arrests. “ There is a conspiracy that cannot be avoided by removing several police chiefs,” he said.
Erdogan himself spoke personally with Soylu to find out details that were unknown to the public. And then the Turkish President, in the parliament building, threw a stone at Yerlikai and threatened without hesitation to fire those people on his team who “ misunderstand the message of the nation.”
What was it really?
If we compare with previous attempts to overthrow Erdogan, we do not see any clear and decisive actions.
In 2013, mass rallies took place in Turkey over deforestation in Gezi Park. In 2016, the military took up arms and attacked government institutions and strategic targets. And this time there is some kind of underhand game going on. There is very little information.
But, one way or another, Erdogan and his supporters call all three events a coup attempt.
As can be seen from the above, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and mafia clans are involved in the case.
A couple of years ago, the Internet was rocked by a story involving the testimony of one of the most influential Turkish crime bosses. Sedat Peker posted a series of videos online discrediting Erdogan’s inner circle with accusations of corruption and connections with the mafia.
One of the main targets of the attack was the aforementioned former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Suleiman Soylu. Peker said that Soylu turned the municipality of Istanbul into a “center of prostitution” by luring female students into it.
Based on media reports about Soylu's connections with Kaplan, who appears in the conspiracy case, the conspirators were targeting Soylu. He is close to both Bahçeli, as he is a nationalist, and Erdogan. At one time they said that Soylu was Erdogan’s successor.
The bottom line is, from the extremely scanty information about the conspiracy, we can conclude that, most likely, bureaucrats from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who have close ties with organized crime groups, are involved in the conspiracy.
It’s too early to say how high the scale of the conspiracy is and how likely the risk of Erdogan’s overthrow is.
So far, it turns out that the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Erlikai, himself was able to prevent the actions of the conspirators in his own department. But the fact that reports about them reached Erdogan and he burst into angry speeches in parliament suggests that the situation is extremely unstable.
Despite the internal intrigues in the Turkish government and the involvement of organized crime groups, external factors cannot be discounted.
If there really was an attempt at a coup, then it is unlikely that it would have happened without the hands of the CIA and Western agents. Joseph Biden's plan to overthrow Erdogan has not been canceled.
Before his election, the American president wanted to do this through elections. But the “Turkish Sultan” still wins the main elections.
Moreover, he is going to change the constitution, which prevents him from running for a new presidential term. By turning Turkey back into a parliamentary republic, Erdogan will be able to continue to govern as prime minister. Unless, of course, the AKP loses the next parliamentary elections.
Does the US have a motive to overthrow Erdogan?
Eat. And this is not only the incompatibility of the leadership in Turkey with the democratic vision of the Biden party. In addition to violating human rights and limiting democracy, the United States is still not satisfied with Erdogan’s Turkey pursuing an independent foreign policy.
Erdogan often puts a spoke in NATO's wheels, blocking the entry of new members or limiting the entry of ships into the Black Sea. He is annoying with his friendly ties with Putin and projects with Russia.
And thirdly, which is not strongly emphasized, but is not without logic, Erdogan behaves very harshly towards Israel.
The Turkish president not only compares Netanyahu to Hitler, but also introduced, unlike Arab countries, economic sanctions against Tel Aviv. Biden himself does not like Netanyahu, but for the deep state of America, tied hand and foot with powerful Jewish financial groups, Erdogan is a real enemy.
Although in the last year we have observed a softening in relations between the United States and Turkey, apparently they have entered into another crisis. It’s not for nothing that Erdogan either didn’t go, or they didn’t want to receive him in Washington. Biden's first visit to the United States after his election ended in scandal.
Concluding this story, let me remind you of two facts.
One of the defendants in the latest conspiracy, or rather its victims, Suleiman Soylu was one of the main opponents of the United States. He constantly criticized America, speaking of universal hatred towards it. And he called Europe “a carriage on an American train.” After the terrorist attack in Istanbul in 2022, he refused to accept condolences from the State Department, made as if the killer would have been one of the first to arrive on the scene.
And the second point is that more than 500 Gulenists were arrested in Turkey the day before. Fethullah Gülen is in the United States and is considered by Erdogan to be the main organizer of the 2016 coup attempt.
There may be many people to blame locally. These could be organized crime groups, Gülenists, military personnel, officials, and journalists. But at the global level, only the United States is able to overthrow Erdogan.
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