Adil Öksüz

A report by Turkey's Financial Crime Investigation Board (MASAK) listed former Brigadier General Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş's financial links with the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), Doğan News Agency reported on July 27.

Turkey is engaging in “hostage diplomacy” by holding several US and German citizens on seemingly trumped-up terrorism charges as bargaining chips in order to force the US and Germany to extradite Turkish nationals, according to current and former security officials in Europe and the US.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said on Aug. 19 that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's call on Turkish citizens in Germany not to vote for Merkel, Schulz and Greens only aimed at Turkish-origin voters not other German citizens. "This is very clear but there are statements (from Germany) that are very disrespectful, insolent and immodest.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued detention warrants for 70 former employees of the Finance Ministry on Aug. 17 as part of a probe into the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), state-run Anadolu Agency has reported. 

Turkish Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül and his German counterpart Heiko Maas held a phone conversation on Aug. 17, the Turkish Justice Ministry has stated.

According to the statement issued on the Justice Ministry's website, the phone call lasted for around an hour where the two ministers discussed "multi-dimensional subjects" and "bilateral judicial cooperation."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Aug. 16 that her country "will not pursue" an upgrading of the European Union's Customs Union with Turkey due to ongoing political tensions.

Ankara has issued a diplomatic note to Berlin asking whether the fugitive prime suspect of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, Adil Öksüz, is in Germany, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in an interview on Aug. 16. 

Turkey sent a diplomatic note to Germany on Aug. 16 over Adil Öksüz, a runaway suspect thought to be the civilian leader of the Gülen movement in the Air Force, following reports that he was seen in Germany, according to diplomatic sources. 

Turkey's EU Ministry has appealed to the Ankara 4th High Criminal Court to become an intervening party in the case on events at the Akıncı air base during last year's coup attempt on the grounds that the coup plotters were aiming to topple the government and ruin Turkey's ties with the EU. 

The key suspect in the case on the events at the Akıncı Air Base, considered to be the commanding center of Turkey's July 2016 coup attempt, has denied all allegations during his defense on the second day of the trademark trial.