Mevlüt Demir, a founding member of Turkey’s opposition Future Party and a retired police chief, called on authorities to examine phone location records of officials he said fled their cities and hid in mountain areas during Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
Demir made the remarks on Kanal 42, a local television station in the central province of Konya, where he served as police chief on the night of the coup attempt.
He said historical traffic search records, known in Turkey as HTS records, should be reviewed to determine where certain officials were during the critical hours of July 15.
HTS records are telecommunications metadata that can show call traffic and location information, including which base stations a phone connected to.
“Many of those who were sympathetic to the Gülen movement yesterday are now speaking in public squares as if they are fighting it,” Demir said. “That is not how this works. If they are confident in themselves, they should look in the mirror and do some soul-searching.”
“You cannot hide on the night of July 15 and then give speeches from podiums the next day,” he said.
The Future Party was founded by Ahmet Davutoğlu, a former prime minister and former chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party, after he broke with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Demir’s remarks came amid long-running debate in Turkey over the “political leg” of the coup attempt, a phrase used by opposition figures to question whether politicians and senior officials have been shielded from scrutiny while soldiers, judges, teachers, police officers and civil servants faced mass investigations.
“Everyone is now trying to present themselves as a hero of July 15,” Demir said. “Everything else may be wrong, but HTS records do not lie.”
“Look at the HTS records of those who currently hold relevant positions in the state but left the city and hid in the mountains until 5 a.m.,” he said. “They know who they are, and the state knows who they are as well.”
“The truth is brighter than the sun,” he added. “The day will come when all of this will be revealed.”
Ankara designates the Gülen movement, a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, as a terrorist organization and blames it for Turkey’s 2016 coup attempt. The movement denies involvement in the coup or any terrorist activity.
Demir’s call focused on officials who, he claimed, avoided public responsibility during the coup attempt but later adopted a hardline public stance against the movement.
His comments pointed to a gap critics of Ankara’s account have often raised: while thousands of lower-ranking personnel and civilians were prosecuted after July 15, the conduct of political and bureaucratic figures during the same hours has received far less scrutiny.
Emekli Emniyet Müdüründen 15 Temmuz yorumu: “O gece dağlarda saklananların HTS kayıtlarına bakılsın” @MevlutDemir_07 / @EnesTurbil – @EmreOzgul23 pic.twitter.com/PsRusGrLK4
— tv42 (@tv42resmi) June 5, 2021
