Maj. Gen. Arif Çetin, who went to the Ministry of Interior, said: "Don’t tell anyone I came here."

It has been revealed that Major General Arif Çetin, who was the Chief of Operations of the Gendarmerie General Command at the time, made prior preparations as part of a plan regarding the events that took place at the Gendarmerie General Command Headquarters on July 15, 2016.

In his written testimony to the court[1], Turgut Aslan, who was the Chief of Counter-Terrorism at the General Directorate of Security on July 15, 2016, stated that he had arranged to meet Major General Arif Çetin at the Gendarmerie General Command Headquarters that evening. Aslan mentioned that Arif Çetin told him, "We will meet at the headquarters around 9:00 PM," but Çetin was not at the headquarters at the specified time. Aslan added, "I still cannot make sense of this."

Major General Arif Çetin: "Don’t tell anyone I came here"

According to a statement from Arif Çetin's official driver included in the prosecutor's indictment [2], Çetin went to the Ministry of Interior on July 15, 2016, and told his driver, “Don’t tell anyone I came here.”

It was known that Arif Çetin was one of the generals who became partisan by making political speeches at the coordination meetings of the Anti-Terrorism Operation held at the General Staff before the November 2015 elections and that his meetings with the government dated back to before July 15.

From the findings included in the Parliamentary Coup Investigation Commission Report and the information note in the Gendarmerie General Command case file related to July 15, it has been revealed that Arif Çetin secretly coordinated with the Ministry of Interior and certain officers.

The fact that the Gendarmerie Special Search and Rescue Unit (JÖAK) was prepared in advance, that Arif Çetin was in contact with some Gendarmerie Regional Commanders, that a special preparation was made in Bursa Gendarmerie Region, that arrests were immediately initiated in 81 provinces citing the discovery of the so-called appointment lists from the bag of a specialist sergeant at around 22:00, and that some soldiers with whom Arif Çetin had previously coordinated secretly were at the gendarmerie units at 21:20 points to the existence of a plan.

As it is known, after July 15, 2016, Major General Arif Çetin was promoted to the rank of General within a year with the Decree No. 2017/346 of the Ministry of Interior and appointed as the General Commander of the Gendarmerie.

Sources

(1) Submitted to the court via a petition in the case file of the Ankara 23rd High Criminal Court, File No. 2017/30 [Gendarmerie General Command - Beştepe].

(2) This statement is included in the indictment of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Investigation No. 2016/103590, Indictment No. 2017/3796 [Gendarmerie], related to the case file of the Ankara 23rd High Criminal Court, File No. 2017/30 [Gendarmerie General Command - Beştepe].