Hanefi Avcı blames Gülen movement, government for Balyoz, Ergenekon cases

Former police chief Hanefi Avcı has censured the Fethullah Gülen movement and the government in an interview with daily Hürriyet following his release from prison.

Avcı was sentenced to 15 years in jail for a book he wrote and was released June 20 after three years and eight months in prison, after a ruling by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The decision came following a June 18 Constitutional Court ruling stating that Avcı’s rights had been violated.

Avcı’s book, “Haliç’te Yaşayan Simonlar: Dün Devlet Bugün Cemaat” (Devoted Residents of Haliç: Yesterday, State, Today, Religious Community), was one of the first that dug deep inside Islamic scholar Gülen’s movement, which he claims to have deep roots of influence within the police.

“Cemaat [Gülen’s movement] is a sui generis organization, which looks open but is secret,” he said. “It is destroying its enemies. It has its own plans and projects. I don’t think there is such an organizational structure anywhere in the world.”

Avcı was imprisoned due to his book, in which he exposed the influence of Gülen’s movement in state institutions. He was imprisoned and fined on charges of helping members of the illegal Revolutionary Headquarters investigate through his book.

The Revolutionary Headquarters case followed some high-profile alleged coup plot cases, such as Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer), about which the government has recently changed its rhetoric, especially after the alleged fallout between the Gülen community and the government.

“The government acted against the law. It intervened in an...