Two-time MHP parliamentary candidate arrested over FETÖ links
It has been revealed that Mustafa Çintaş, a retired non-commissioned officer who was active in the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and served as an İzmir parliamentary candidate in the 2015 and 2023 elections, was a "FETÖ handler" and has been arrested.
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It was announced that detention warrants were issued for 16 suspects, including 14 former military personnel previously dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and two "covert imams," who were determined to have communicated with the organization's so-called civilian imams using landline telephones.
One of the individuals arrested following the operation was Mustafa Çintaş, who retired while serving with the rank of non-commissioned officer.
Çintaş was the 13th-place parliamentary candidate for the MHP in İzmir's 2nd District in both the 2015 and 2023 general elections.
Tolga Şardan from T24 covered the operation in his column. Here are some excerpts from Şardan's article:
"In the investigation conducted into Çintaş, a special report obtained from MASAK (Financial Crimes Investigation Board) was included in the file, as is the case in similar investigations.
The report stated that the retired non-commissioned officer, a FETÖ suspect, had 7 separate accounts at the FETÖ-linked Bank Asya, and that upon examination, it was concluded that all transactions were within the scope of routine banking operations.
However, there is another finding in the same report:
'The fact that an individual with the status of a retired civil servant opened a TL participation account in the amount of 100 thousand TL, opened a foreign currency time deposit account in the amount of 7 thousand USD, and brought 26.23 grams of gold into the banking system creates the impression that he evaluated all his financial assets at the relevant bank and acted in accordance with the call made by the FETÖ ringleader.'
... The same individual also competed to be elected as a member of parliament from the MHP in the same electoral district in the 2015 general elections.
... If they give the 'We were unaware' response, there are documents in the investigation file sent by the MIT (National Intelligence Organization) Presidency directly to the prosecutor's office regarding Çintaş.
The MIT Presidency has three separate reports on Çintaş, one dated August 2017 and two dated September 2017.
In fact, the MIT document dated August 2017 stated that Çintaş had signatory authority in a company established under the instructions of FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen, and that the company owner also had contact with Mustafa Arslan, the person responsible for FETÖ's Land Forces Command, who was understood to be the TSK imam of FETÖ, Adil Öksüz..."