Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Garo Paylan said on Wednesday that he received intelligence about assassination plans targeting Turkish citizens living in Europe, amid speeches by pro-government columnists suggesting that Turkish intelligence kill journalists and academics abroad.
Speaking during a press conference in Parliament on Wednesday, Paylan said: “I received intelligence last week over plans of assassination or a chain of assassinations targeting our citizens living in Europe, particularly those in Germany; an information that I have verified from multiple sources.”
He added that the intelligence points to three assassins in action.
Underlining that several European countries have taken similar tips and their intelligence services have provided security for the individuals and groups under threat, Paylan said “this Turkey-based structure mobilized certain assassins for these assassinations.”
“Thousands of academics, journalists, politicians and opinion leaders have been forced to leave to Europe particularly because of the latest oppressive policies of the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party],” he added.
“These journalists and academics have been labeled as ‘traitors’ by the government, the president and the media. Such discourse in politics unfortunately trigger action by certain groups,” he stressed.
According to Paylan, the plotters have a list of assassinations in their hands. He also said he has informed the Turkish intelligence, the police and relevant ministers about the tip.
Recently, pro-government journalist Cem Küçük and Fuat Uğur, both are staunch supporter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, suggested during a live TV program that Turkish intelligence should assassinate prominent people, mainly journalists and academics, who are linked to faith-based Gülen movement that Turkish government accuse of being behind a failed coup last year.
Küçük named former Zaman daily editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı, former Today’s Zaman columnist Emre Uslu, former Today’s Zaman Ankara representative Abdullah Bozkurt and academics and former Today’s Zaman columnist professor İhsan Yılmaz to be first assassinated.
“Blow the brains out of 3 to 5 of them. Look how frightened they’ll be.
Kill that Ekrem Dumanlı, Emre Uslu now… Abdullah Bozkurt lives in Stockholm. His home address is known by the [Turkish] state. [Turkish intelligence] knows where Emre Uslu lives. All those dastards. The dog known as İhsan Yılmaz who travels around Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
Immediately after the putsch AKP the government along with Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Amid an ongoing witch-hunt targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on Nov. 16 said 48,739 people had been jailed and eight holdings and 1,020 companies seized as part of operations against the movement.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15 through government decrees issued as part of an ongoing state of emergency.
According to Ministry of Justice data, there are currently 384 prisons with a capacity of 207,279 in Turkey; however, the total number of inmates was 228,983 as of October 2017.
The Turkish Ministry of Justice plans to build 228 new prisons with a capacity of 137,687 in the next five years.