Russia analyst Kerim Has said Russian military-linked figures told him Moscow had warned Turkish authorities days before Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt, including about the timing of the events.
Has made the remarks during a live program broadcast on Kronos’s YouTube and Facebook channels in January 2021.
“I personally heard this from many figures with military backgrounds in Moscow,” Has said.
“Russians say they warned Erdoğan about July 15 days in advance, down to the exact day and hour,” he said.
Has said those figures claimed the information was conveyed through military, intelligence and senior political channels.
“There are many figures who say, ‘We provided this information at the military, intelligence and senior political levels. The fact that Erdoğan did not take any steps to prevent the coup attempt despite this shows that he was somehow part of the plan,’” Has said.
Has did not identify the Russian figures by name in the quoted remarks.
His comments add to long-running questions over what Turkish state officials knew before the coup attempt, when they learned it and why the events were not prevented despite warnings reportedly received by intelligence and military authorities.
Has also said Turkey-Russia relations were marked by a major imbalance in Moscow’s favor and predicted that the disparity would grow further.
The remarks are politically sensitive because Ankara’s official account presents the coup attempt as an attack that the government defeated after it began, while critics have focused on unanswered questions about prior intelligence, the conduct of senior officials and the decisions of then-National Intelligence Organization chief Hakan Fidan, then-chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Ankara blames the coup attempt on alleged Gülen movement-linked officers, a claim the movement denies.
The Gülen movement is a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Ankara designates it as a terrorist organization, while the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
