Metin Gurcan, a founding member of a Turkish opposition social gathering, who can also be an Al-Monitor contributor, was detained early within the morning on Nov. 26 on expenses of “espionage,” in a transfer many imagine is politically motivated geared toward intimidating the opposition as a part of the Turkish government’s growing campaigns targeting opposition members.
“I’m being detained over political espionage expenses,” Gurcan, a member of Democracy and Progress Get together (DEVA), wrote on Twitter throughout a police raid at his home in Istanbul. “I’m shocked. I’m ready in your help,” he added.
Gurcan, 45, a retired officer on the Turkish Armed Forces, joined DEVA in 2020. He’s a outstanding commentator on army and protection fields and has been an Al-Monitor contributor since 2014.
DEVA’s chief Ali Babacan, a former Turkish Minister of Overseas Affairs and Economic system, mentioned the social gathering’s legal professionals will present full authorized help to Gurcan.
Questioning the motive behind the arrest, Babacan additionally mentioned the transfer can’t deter his social gathering.
“If the transfer in the present day is political in nature, or if the goal is a specific stance towards our social gathering, an try and masks the grave financial circumstances within the nation, I wish to state that such makes an attempt won’t ever deter the Deva group,” Babacan was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Quite a lot of political opponents and critics have been accused of “political espionage” lately in Turkey.
“Political espionage claims have usually come into public focus lately. This accusation is made fairly often,” Babacan later added in an interview with Medyascope, a Turkey-based impartial digital information platform.
“But, we see that in these incidents, individuals [detainees] are all of the sudden being launched by telephone calls coming from overseas. … We witnessed [a similar incident] simply final week” he mentioned, referring to an Israeli couple who have been detained over “espionage” expenses in Istanbul final week and launched after talks between Turkey and Israeli officers.
“Metin Gurcan is our good friend who delivers essentially the most sharp-tongued, most open and staunch criticism particularly on overseas safety and overseas coverage points inside our social gathering.”
Mustafa Yeneroglu, a DEVA lawmaker, mentioned Gurcan has been detained as a part of an investigation launched by an Ankara prosecutor in 2020. Yeneroglu added that quite a few individuals have been detained as a part of the investigation with out elaborating.
The small print of the investigation are nonetheless unknown. Turkish police haven’t commented on the case.
