Turkish police today detained a former military helicopter pilot wanted for nearly a decade for his alleged role in an operation targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a failed coup in July 2016, the Turkish newspaper "Turkish Minit" reported, quoted by BTA.
Turkey's Interior Ministry announced today that Burkay Karatepe, a former captain dismissed from the army, was detained in the western province of Afyonkarahisar.
Prosecutors say Karatepe was part of a 37-member military team sent to a hotel in the southwestern resort town of Marmaris, where Erdogan was staying on the night of July 15, 2016. Erdogan is left the hotel before the building was stormed. Two police officers were killed during the operation.
The ministry identified Karatepe as the last fugitive from the team and said he was wanted on an Interpol red notice.
He is charged with attempted assassination of the president, murder of a person in the course of his public duties, violation of the Military Penal Code and aggravated robbery committed at night by multiple armed assailants in a residence.
Karatepe's case has been separated from the main case because his whereabouts have not been established. The proceedings continue under the coordination of the Mugla Chief Prosecutor's Office.
The main case in Marmaris involves 47 defendants accused of participating in the operation targeting Erdogan. A court in Mugla in October 2017 sentenced dozens of defendants to multiple aggravated life sentences.
Karatepe's case has been separated, along with those of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, former Lieutenant Colonel Özcan Karacan, and Ramazan Elmas, as they were not detained. The Justice Ministry said the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the convictions in the main case in May 2022.
Turkish prosecutors have accused Gulen, who lived in self-imposed exile in the United States from 1999 until his death, of masterminding the failed coup and of running his religious movement, which they say organized the Marmaris operation.
They allege that military officers affiliated with his movement infiltrated the armed forces and carried out the attempted overthrow of Erdogan's government on Gulen's instructions.
Gulen has denied any involvement in the coup or the operation targeting Erdogan and has called for an independent international investigation.
Turkey has repeatedly requested his extradition from the United States, but Washington has rejected the requests, saying that the evidence presented by Ankara does not meet the legal standard required for extradition.
Turkey designates Gulen's movement - the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO) - as a terrorist organization, although it is not listed as such by the United States or the European Union.
Several defendants have also disputed the government's version of the Marmaris operation.
A leaked assessment by the EU Intelligence Analysis Center, published by The Times in January 2017, concluded that the coup was organized by a number of Erdogan's opponents, rather than being led exclusively by the Gulen movement, with participants motivated in part by fears of an impending military purge.
Erdogan's government has dramatically expanded its existing crackdown on the movement since the failed coup, the media outlet recalls. More than 720,000 people have been investigated and 127,102 have been convicted for alleged links.