Ayhan Bora Kaplan's confessions on the Sinan Ateş murder and July 15: 'We did whatever the state demanded of us'
Crime organization leader Ayhan Bora Kaplan has claimed he was pressured to provide testimony as a secret witness regarding the Sinan Ateş murder and stated that they neutralized tanks on the night of July 15. Kaplan also alleged that operations were being planned against prominent bureaucrats.
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Former Ülkü Ocakları (Idealist Hearths) President Sinan Ateş was murdered on December 30, 2022, in the Çukurambar neighborhood of the Çankaya district.
Following the murder of Ateş, which resulted in prison sentences for 11 defendants, crime organization leader Ayhan Bora Kaplan—who was detained and arrested in an operation by the Ankara Police Department on September 7, 2023—stated: "Because the president of the Ülkü Ocakları and his deputies are my friends, they wanted to take my statement as a secret witness to incriminate them in the Sinan Ateş file. They wanted me to testify that this murder was committed with the knowledge of MHP officials. While I was being held at the İzmir Buca Prison, the Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime Branch, Şevket Demircan, came to take my statement. My lawyer, Umut Köroğlu, was with us."
'VERY DIFFERENT THINGS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IN THE COUNTRY'
Responding to questions from Can Özçelik of Oda TV through his lawyer Sidar Yurtçiçek, Kaplan said, "The goal was to take my statement as a secret witness regarding Bekir Bozdağ, Halk Bank General Manager Osman Aslan, Sadık Soylu, Süleyman Soylu, and other bureaucrats, and to conduct operations against them. If I had accepted the secret witness status, very different things would be discussed in the country today."
'WE DID WHATEVER THE STATE DEMANDED OF US'
Explaining what happened on the night of July 15, Kaplan continued:
"The reason for everything I have written here stems from what I did on July 15. After the TRT was occupied that night, when we went there, the then-Chief of Counter-Terrorism and a few police officers were present. Before going to the TRT, I gathered my friends, my employees, everyone, and told them, 'Call anyone you know or don't know.' When we went there with 150-200 people, there was no one else there. The anger of the Fethullahists is not just because I went to the TRT. We entered the Etimesgut Armored Units Command and removed the spark plug ignition systems, cables, and equipment of all the tanks, rendering them unusable. While going there, AK Party Ankara Deputy Murat Alparslan was also with us. We did whatever the state demanded of us until the morning of July 17."