Testimony of Fethi Koyuncu, number two of the Ayhan Bora Kaplan organization, revealed: 'I desperately wanted the Organized Crime Bureau to change'

Müyesser Yıldız / 12punto.com.tr

The trial of the “Ayhan Bora Kaplan organized criminal organization” continued. Fethi Koyuncu, who is stated to be one of the organization's leaders, explained that he desperately wanted the Ankara Organized Crime Bureau to change because he had been subjected to operations without cause, but that the new arrivals turned out to be faster than those who left, stating, “They are not after criminals.”

The third session of the trial (April 18), held by the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court at the Sincan Prison complex, began with the defense of one of the non-detained defendants, Aydın Eralp. When Eralp stated that he did not know Bora Kaplan, but knew him by name from the nightlife scene, the Presiding Judge asked, “What is his special feature that he is known in the nightlife scene?” When Aydın Eralp replied, “Because he owns venues,” the Judge asked, “Is one known just for owning three venues?”

THE HEAD OF 5 WOMEN

Fethi Koyuncu, one of the detained defendants accused of being a leader of an armed criminal organization, stated that the file that led to his detention in 2020 due to a name similarity had resurfaced in this case, and alleged that the statements against him were given under police pressure, saying, “Because they did the same thing to me, but I did not accept it.”

Explaining that he has an elderly mother he is responsible for, 3 sisters with 97 percent disability, and a daughter, Koyuncu said, “I am just the head of these 5 women,” and stated that he knew Bora Kaplan mostly for his charitable side.

He gave the following response to the Presiding Judge's question regarding what the terms “friend, big friend, small friend” used in phone wiretaps meant:

“As far as I have observed for three days, it could be a weapon. There are those who say it is a Russian woman or loose change. It could be anything.”

Regarding the secret witness statements, Fethi Koyuncu said, “Not a secret witness, but a direct lying witness. They put the file in front of him and prepared a statement accordingly. If they had offered me to be a witness, I would have accepted and helped the state. But they did not ask me to testify, they asked me to slander.”

THE POLICE LIST ON THE PHONE

Fethi Koyuncu gave the following response to the Presiding Judge's question about why he had a photograph of a police appointment document on his phone:

“This is a subject that directly concerns me. I was subjected to operations without cause. And for some reason, these operations always happened 1 week or 10 days before the elections. Finally, when there was talk that there would be changes in the police department near the election, I started following the Organized Crime Bureau desperately. I wanted it to change. At least I thought the new team that came would watch me, prove things, prepare a file, and then take me in. But these turned out to be faster than the others; there was no watching or anything, they pulled a 6-year-old file off the shelf. What is this hurry? That is why I followed the changes, to see who came and who went. I asked a customer who came to my business, whose name I don't remember, ‘Has the Organized Crime Bureau changed?’ He said, ‘Everything has changed, look here.’ I was busy, so I took a picture of it to look at later. A change happened, but nothing changed. Because they are not after criminals.”

One of the non-detained defendants, Koray Erbakan, stated that he has been in the construction business and selling construction materials for 25 years, that he has no connection to any criminal organization, that he only knew Bora Kaplan and 4 defendants due to business relations, and that he knew Kaplan as a businessman. Upon Bora Kaplan's question, Erbakan stated that, contrary to what the secret witness claimed, Bora Kaplan was not the owner of the E….. markets.