Twenty-three suspects, who were detained in an operation targeting the current financial structure of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) across nine provinces, were referred to the courthouse on Friday.
The procedures of the 26 suspects detained as part of the investigation conducted by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into the current financial structure of FETÖ have been completed at a police station. Twenty-three of the suspects, among whom is Zeki Doruk, the owner of major Turkish retail chains HAKMAR and TATBAK, were referred to the Istanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan. The remaining three suspects were released following their procedures at the police station.
Doruk left his entire fortune to FETÖ, according to a handwritten will discovered in his home during a joint anti-terror operation, authorities said a day earlier.
Doruk was among several suspects detained in a coordinated operation carried out on July 15 across nine provinces by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Istanbul Financial Crimes Department, targeting FETÖ’s current financial network.
During a search of his residence, law enforcement discovered a locked safe containing large quantities of gold and jewelry, as well as a personal will and a religious invocation. The will, written in Doruk’s own handwriting, stated that he was bequeathing all his assets – including HAKMAR and TATBAK – to FETÖ, and instructed that the zakat (charitable giving) from his businesses be directed to the group under the guise of “the Hizmet movement.”
Authorities also found a so-called “talisman prayer,” believed to have been written by FETÖ’s deceased ringleader Fetullah Gülen himself and distributed to select members of the group’s secretive inner circle. Doruk had reportedly kept the prayer along with his will in the safe, telling associates, “It was Gülen who elevated me, my fortune is his.”
When first detained, Doruk deliberately gave the wrong combination to HAKMAR’s corporate safe to prevent access, officials said.
A court-appointed trustee has now been assigned to manage the affairs of both HAKMAR and TATBAK, as well as an additional 19 companies owned by Doruk that were found to have funneled finances to FETÖ’s domestic and international networks.
Authorities say the businessman was regularly transferring funds to FETÖ operatives in Türkiye under the instructions of the group’s overseas leadership.
Doruk’s 22 companies now under trustee control include firms operating in agriculture, education, food, retail and construction.
FETÖ is behind the defeated coup attempt, in which 252 people were killed and 2,734 were wounded, was plotted and carried out by FETÖ.
Along with the 2016 coup attempt, FETÖ is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Türkiye has targeted the terrorist group’s active members and sleeper cells nonstop, and its influence has been much reduced since 2016. However, the group maintains a vast network, including infiltrators suspected of still operating within Turkish institutions.
FETÖ backers in army ranks and civil institutions have disguised their loyalty, as operations and investigations have indicated since the 2016 coup attempt. FETÖ is implicated in a string of cases related to its alleged plots to imprison its critics, money laundering, fraud and forgery.
The terrorist group faces operations almost daily as investigators still try to unravel its massive network of infiltrators everywhere. In 2024 alone, police apprehended hundreds of FETÖ suspects across the country, including fugitives on western borders trying to flee to Europe.
270 arrested in Izmir
Meanwhile, another 270 suspects with links to FETÖ’s financial structure were arrested in operations centered in Izmir.
Under the coordination of Necati Kayaközü, a deputy chief prosecutor responsible for the Terrorism and Organized Crimes and Organized Crimes Bureaus of the Izmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, teams from the Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence Branches of the Provincial Police Department are continuing their efforts to expose FETÖ’s activities related to “Violating Law No. 6415 on the Prevention of the Financing of Terrorism.”
Police squads launched simultaneous operations in 60 provinces, centered in Izmir, on Tuesday morning.
The investigation has identified 78 suspects abroad, and efforts are ongoing to apprehend 23 suspects.
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