ANKARA: Fugitive preacher Fetullah Gulen had approved the plan to capture and assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the night of the July 15 coup bid, an indictment by the Mugla Public Prosecutor’s Office said here.
The Turkish president was staying in Grand Yazıcı Hotel with his family in Mugla’s Marmaris district on the July 15 night . As the coup attempt broke out, he went to Istanbul, escaping the assassination attempt by 15 minutes. The putschist soldiers arrived at the hotel just minutes after Erdogan left the hotel for Istanbul, clashing with security forces, leaving two police officers and a presidential guard dead.
The indictment also said that Gulenist troops met in a hotel in Ankara a week before the attempt to discuss the plot against the president.
According to the plan, the putschist soldiers would abduct Erdogan from the Grand Yazıcı Hotel and take him to the Akıncı Air Base in Ankara, the headquarters of the coup soldiers.
Brigadier General Gokhan Şahin Sonmezates, now in jail for involvement in the coup and assassination attempts, was ordered to head the plot by the Pennsylvania-based terrorist leader Gulen.
Sonmezateş was in command of 14 officers from the Special Forces Command, 12 soldiers from the Search and Rescue Team, two from Underwater Offence (SAT) commandos who went to Marmaris for the assassination plan.
