A setup within a setup!..

The verdict for Bora Kaplan, who faces a life sentence plus up to 150 years in prison on charges of being the leader of an organized crime syndicate, will be delivered this week.

We have frequently drawn attention to the oddities in this case. Most recently, on October 21, in an article titled “A bribery offer like this has never been seen,” we detailed a WhatsApp recording regarding a bribery offer that Erkan Doğan, one of the complainants in the case, claimed was made to him to change his testimony.

To summarize briefly;

Erkan Doğan is an individual who claims that while he was working for Barış Kurt—a former AKP Ankara Provincial Deputy Chair and Çankaya Municipal Council member, and one of Bora Kaplan’s associates—he was kidnapped by Kaplan and Kurt because he demanded money owed to him, and that his teeth were extracted with pliers at a plaza. It was also he who ensured that Bora Kaplan was detained at Esenboğa Airport while attempting to go abroad, leading to the opening of this organized crime file.

In his testimony as a complainant during the May 20 hearing of the case held at the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court, Erkan Doğan reiterated his allegations and stated that Barış Kurt’s associates had offered him various sums of money before the hearing, that he had recorded these, and that he could submit them to the court if requested.

Doğan submitted the WhatsApp recording he mentioned, and after we obtained and watched it, we reported the significant parts of the “bribery offer” in question and made the following assessment:

“Have you ever seen such a recorded, documented bribery offer? If it is true; look at the recklessness, audacity, or ease. If it is not; what is this, it is impossible to understand.”

POLICE CONSIDERED THE RECORDING AS EVIDENCE IN THEIR FAVOR

Shouldn't the prosecutor, who is also seeking punishment for Bora Kaplan and Barış Kurt for extracting Erkan Doğan’s teeth, have found this person who offered a “bribe” to Doğan after that recording surfaced and taken his statement?

No, nothing of the sort has been done to date.

However, the lawyer for Şevket Demircan, a former Deputy Director of the Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime (KOM) Branch—who led the Bora Kaplan operation but was later held responsible for the flight of secret witness M7 (code-named Serdar Sertçelik) abroad, spent 4 months in prison, and was subsequently released under judicial control—transcribed the recording and submitted it as evidence in their favor to the 13th Criminal Court of First Instance, where the police officers are being tried. The petition regarding this included the following findings and requests:

“While this transcription was being made, we were left in astonishment, and it was clearly revealed how cleverly and ruthlessly a setup was orchestrated against the members of the police force who are being tried in your file along with my client. These videos are videos containing the issue of changing testimonies by offering large sums of money to the complainant Erkan Doğan in the file known to the public as the Ayhan Bora Kaplan criminal organization case. The police officers on trial were made to give statements in line with the contents of this video by the secret witness Serdar Sertçelik, who fled using the same style of rhetoric prepared by this criminal organization and its extensions, and also by the secret witness named Ü5, whom we do not know how was deceived after their court testimony. Again, as we have heard from the public and through the examination of the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court’s file, we believe that many complainants were made to withdraw their complaints through pressure, violence, or large sums of money. Because withdrawals occurred using the exact same rhetoric as in the videos, and the police force was blamed. Our request is; for these transcriptions or recordings to be examined by an expert, for a criminal complaint to be filed with the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the person in the video so that they can be apprehended and interrogated, and for the videos to be evaluated as evidence in favor of Şevket Demircan and for an acquittal decision to be rendered for him.”

THAT PERSON FOUND US

Whether the 13th Criminal Court will take these requests into account and ensure that the person is found and their statement taken is unknown; but the following development occurred: that person reached out to us and explained what happened.

Here are the allegations of the person in question:

“I have known Erkan Doğan for 25 years. He is someone we took into our home, whom I fed and gave drink. After the Bora Kaplan operation, he called me and said, ‘A great stroke of luck has fallen upon me.’ He told me that they brought him to Ankara from Istanbul with two VIP vehicles of the Special Operations, that there were important men in the vehicle, that he was taken to the Prosecutor and told what to say in his testimony, and that they even had him meet with Ali Yerlikaya, and that the Prosecutor said, ‘Lion of God, thanks to you, we will arrest this p….’ He said, referring to Barış Kurt and Bora Kaplan, ‘I will squeeze a lot of money out of them. Find one of their men, send word to them, and tell them I will give the correct version of my testimony. If we get the money, 30-35 percent is yours.’ I asked him not to get me into trouble. He stated that I was the only person he trusted, and I accepted. I reached out to Barış Kurt’s associates through mutual acquaintances from Samsun. But they said, ‘Justice will be served. We have no money to give to anyone.’ My wife is also a witness to all these conversations. Listen to us separately, you will see that we will tell the same things.”

450 LIRAS WORTH OF COUNTERFEIT DOLLARS

According to this person’s account, the following then transpired:

“Upon the refusal of Barış Kurt’s associates, Erkan Doğan said, ‘Let’s make a plan with you.’ I again asked him not to get me into trouble; but I let my guard down and accepted. He gave me the statement and told me to read it. ‘We will film it, get some counterfeit dollars, show them in a bag,’ he said. I bought some counterfeit dollars for 450 liras and filled the bottom with paper. Then I regretted it. When my wife got angry at me, saying, ‘He cannot be trusted,’ I called and asked him to delete the recording. ‘Okay, buddy, I deleted it. I won’t give it to the court either,’ he said. But after your article, I realized he hadn’t deleted it. His nickname is ‘Japanese Erkan.’ He double-crosses everyone. I don’t sell anyone out, but after this betrayal of his, I will file a complaint against him. Yes, I did wrong too, I am ready to face whatever the punishment is; but if I saw Erkan Doğan right now, I would pull his teeth out myself. Let me also state this; because he used drugs, Erkan Doğan’s teeth had already fallen out back when he was in Samsun.”

The person in question finally said, “After the recording surfaced, Erkan Doğan never called me again. However, recently he called a mutual friend from a phone with a Swedish country code and said he had 15 million liras. Whether he went abroad or is just making it look that way, I don’t know.”

This is the latest situation in one of the most important cases of the recent period. Instead of the knots being untied one by one, new ones are being added. Let’s see who will untie these knots, how, and when?!

Müyesser YILDIZ

November 17, 2024