Civil servant silenced for reporting FETÖ terrorists

After President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on all citizens to expose the people they knew to be Fetullah Terror Organization (FETÖ) members, and to turn to prosecutor’s office, a citizen denounced employees as FETÖ members at the institution where he works. However, he was dismissed on charges of “defamation”. Kenan Ülkü, who works at Turkish State Railways, upon Erdoğan’s call, denounced fellow employees he regarded as FETÖ members to the Presidential Communications Center (CİMER), the Prime Ministry Center for Communications (BİMER), and the Turkish State Railways Inspection Board and prosecution.

The Turkish State Railways Inspection Board Administration and the prosecutor’s office launched an investigation upon the petitions Ülkü had submitted deeming his coworkers as FETÖ members. During the prosecution’s investigation, 62 names on the petition have so far been dismissed by the enactments. The investigations on other names are still ongoing. However, the Inspection Board launched an investigation on Ülkü on charges of “defamation”, without waiting for the prosecutors office’s investigations to be concluded.

The Board’s investigation file claimed that Ülkü charged the 139 people he had reported with untruthful accusations; that he submitted documents about only 13 people; and that he did not present any information and document about the remaining 126 people. However, there were those who were dismissed amongst the 139 names, and the recent enactment no. 692 included three names from the list which Ülkü had submitted. Amongst them, the Turkish State Railways Inspection Board Vice President Alpaslan Canöz was identified as a ByLock user, an application used by FETÖ members.

Turkish State Railways Inspection Board, in the aftermath of the investigation, decided to terminate Ülkü’s civil service as a result of the meeting held on May 18, 2017. The justification of the decision claimed that Ülkü made “untruthful allegations”. The decision noted that, as required by the Turkish State Railways Regulations on Personnel, Ülkü needed to be punished with the “elimination of promotion” for 126 times (the number of people whom Ülkü allegedly did not present documents about); however, his civil service was terminated as per the same regulations’ provision stating that “in the case that various offenses which requires the same punishment in a case are combined, authorities have the right to administer a higher level of punishment by aggravating the punishment of offenses, they can additionally administer separate punishments for each offence by exercising their discretion.”

Ülkü filed an annulment action with Ankara’s Administrative Court. The complaint that Ülkü submitted to the court through his advocate stated that the decision was contrary to the process of law, and read:

“This decision was taken on the grounds that he [Ülkü] submitted names that work at Turkish State Railways and he believes to be connected to FETÖ to the institutions CİMER, BİMER, the Office of the Chief Prosecutor and Turkish State Railways Inspection Board Administration. It is incomprehensible that this act was punished in this way, which the client considered as his civil duty. It is an action in need of an explanation in regards to the institution discharging the client on the grounds that he aspersed the people, whom he had notified, without even launching an investigation.”

FETÖ terrorists are led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, who orchestrated Turkey's July 15 coup attempt and is the mastermind behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Since the failed coup, operations have been ongoing in the military, police and judiciary as well as in state institutions across the country to arrest suspects with alleged links to FETÖ.

The terrorist group is also known for its network comprised of hundreds of schools around the world.