Turkey: FETO's 'one-dollar bill' mystery solved

By Erdinc Aksoy

ZONGULDAK, Turkey (AA) - Many detained Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) suspects' U.S. dollar bills have been added to evidence by Turkish police as it is believed by security sources that the serial-number letters on the banknotes are used as code within the organization.

Several suspects had banknotes starting with "F".

According to a compilation made by an Anadolu Agency correspondent on Saturday, police officers found a case with a combination lock belonging to a gendarme staff colonel named Kamil Gunler who was remanded on July 16.

One dollar bill in a taped envelope was found as police officers opened the case.

Separately, the same banknotes were found on Judge Neslihan Dagli and Guluzar Gulsen Firat when these FETO suspects were searched by police. Both have since been remanded.

Additionally, another one-dollar bill was found by police during a search of an imam hatip high school teacher named Bahattin Turkaslan in the eastern province of Mus. The police detained him on July 22 then he was remanded in custody.

Another remanded person, chief of police in Mus province's Malazgirt district, Beyhan Ceylan, was also carrying one-dollar bills. He was firstly detained on July 18 then remanded.

In the meantime, several detained military personnel and businessmen had the same banknotes on them in the northwestern province of Kocaeli.

There were one-dollar bill banknotes whose serial numbers began with "F", "J" and "C" during the police search.

It is claimed that military personnel had these banknotes to show their membership of the organization.

Separately there was another one-dollar bill found by police in a steel safe in a FETO-linked school in the central province of Sivas. Trustees had been appointed to the Sultan Murat Educational Institution on March 25.

Police seized many one-dollar bills during an operation against Sakarya Entrepreneur and Industrial Businessmen’s Association (SAGIAD). Fifteen suspects were detained in this operation on Saturday. The banknotes that the police seized started with "F".

In the same province – located in Turkey's northwest – 11 military personnel were detained as coup suspects on July 23. During a search made in their office and residences, police found one-dollar bills starting with "J".

The Turkish media brought forward the one-dollar bill issue almost two years ago as U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen handed out this money to his partisans.

The deadly coup attempt began late July 15 when rogue elements of the Turkish military tried to overthrow the country's democratically-elected government, killing at least 246 people and injuring more than 2,100 others.

The government said the attempted coup was organized by followers of Gulen.

Gulen is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming a ‘parallel state’.

* Anadolu Agency correspondent Can Erozden contributed to this report from Ankara.