Former Turkish military chief: I warned PM over Gülenist risk within police, judiciary

Former Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ has said he warned the prime minister, while on duty, about suspected activities of certain members of the Police Department and the judiciary who had taken actions against the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and who were apparently linked to the Gülen movement.

“When operations against the TSK conducted through the judiciary and the police began, we tried to investigate – within the bound of our possibilities - who was behind this operation,” Başbuğ said in an interview with the Star news station late on July 24, when asked whether he had shared any information on the “parallel state” with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he was on duty.

“Information that we received from various places showed that a number of police chiefs at the Police Department were behind this plot operation in particular. In line with information that we received through various channels, we prepared a list about the Police Department. Of course, I shared our views and concerns with the prime minister on a few occasions and we presented a list of these police officers to him,” Başbuğ added.

Başbuğ served as the chief of General Staff from 2008 to 2010. After being detained in January 2012 as part of the ongoing Ergenekon coup plot case, he was released in early March upon a ruling from the Constitutional Court that his imprisonment was a “rights violation,” on the grounds that the detailed reasoning regarding his conviction was not issued until seven months after the verdict.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) claims that supporters of former ally, U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, formed an alleged “parallel...