The former Turkish prosecutor in charge of the December 17, 2013 corruption and bribery operation said in an interview with investigative journalist Cevheri Güven a decade after that fateful day that Turkey sank into lawlessness and its legal and ethical structures were severely damaged after the investigations into high-ranking members of the ruling party were dropped.
On December 17, 2013, three separate investigations led to simultaneous police raids in İstanbul and the detention of the sons of three then-ministers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab, the director of a state-owned bank, a district mayor and many more.
The probes implicated the family members of four cabinet ministers as well as the children of then-prime minister and current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, among others.
Despite the scandal resulting in the resignation of the four cabinet members, the investigations were dropped after prosecutors and police chiefs were removed from the case. Erdoğan, officials from the ruling AKP and the pro-government media described the investigation as an attempt to overthrow the government.
Former Turkish prosecutor Celal Kara, who was in charge of the three probes that led to police raids at the time spoke about the repercussions of the operation with Güven in an interview published on Wednesday.
Kara, like thousands of judges and prosecutors as well as police officers and soldiers, was dismissed by an emergency decree as part of a purge of state institutions following a failed coup in 2016.
In the interview published on Güven’s Patreon page on Wednesday, Kara described the operation as a turning point for Turkey, particularly due to Erdoğan’s harsh and unprecedented response.
Dismissing the investigation as a conspiracy against his government by the Gülen movement, a group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, Erdoğan designated the faith-based group as a terrorist organization and began to target its members.
He locked up thousands, including many prosecutors, judges and police officers involved in the investigation.
Kara described the dismissal and arrest of officials involved in the investigation, including himself, as a significant setback for the rule of law and anti-corruption efforts in Turkey.
AKP gov't remove another 104 police chiefs to cover up the corruption scandal. 170 more expected #YolsuzlukLobisi pic.twitter.com/UcyHXJ34eu
— Emre OĞUZ (@oguzemrese) December 23, 2013
He refuted the speculation that the investigation was a response to the government’s attempt to close Gülen movement-run prep schools.
At its peak, the Gülen movement operated schools in 160 countries and ran thousands of educational facilities in Turkey, including schools, prep schools, universities and dormitories. The movement is well known for its educational activities and civic initiatives worldwide.
In the first years as prime minister, Erdoğan spoke positively about the Gülen movement and praised the group’s educational successes.
However, his attitude towards the Gülen movement changed when he adopted a more authoritarian attitude following the nationwide Gezi protests against the AKP government in the summer of 2013.
In the fall of that year Erdoğan announced that the government planned to shut down prep schools, which was perceived by many as a measure against the Gülen movement, due to the high number of prep schools run by the group at the time and the increasingly hostile messaging of the pro-government media toward Gülenists.
Responding to claims that the corruption investigations were part of an attempt by the Gülen movement to topple the AKP, Kara said the three separate investigations that led to the police raids on Dec. 17 had begun in 2012 and initially focused on organized gold and currency smuggling led by businessman Zarrab. As the investigation proceeded, it expanded to include allegations of bribery and corruption involving government officials and their families.
Underlining that the investigations started well before Erdoğan announced plans to shut down prep schools, Kara said evidence pointing to the bribery of AKP members emerged during the investigation, shifting its focus from a smuggling case to a broader corruption probe.
If these pieces of evidence had not emerged, Kara noted, the investigation would have remained a straightforward smuggling case, potentially concluding with either charges of smuggling or a decision not to pursue the case further, depending on the evidence.
Kara said he was shocked when he later realized how widespread the conspiracy theory was that the corruption probe was a reaction to the government’s closure of prep schools. He argued that it would have been impossible to initiate and conclude such comprehensive investigations within the three months between Erdoğan’s statements and the operations.
Kara joined the investigation in June 2013, inheriting cases from three different prosecutors. He recounted his initial briefing about the case’s scope, which highlighted the investigation’s unprecedented scale, surpassing previous corruption cases in Turkish history.
The former prosecutor stated that fully understanding the intricacies of the investigations took months, with a complete grasp emerging only about a month before the operation on December 17.
Addressing government and judicial interference, Kara said that before the operation, neither then-chief İstanbul prosecutor Turan Çolakkadı nor his deputies asked about the cases before the operation. However, on the day of the operation, Çolakkadı requested details about the suspects, which Kara interpreted as the AKP’s attempt to learn about the investigation’s scope.
Kara reflected on various attempts to gather information about the investigation, including those by journalists he suspected of working for the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). He said other divisions of law enforcement were unaware of the investigations before December 17, hence no queries were directed to him before the operation.
700 police chiefs so far removed across Turkey since corruption case launched.100 of them sued at the Council of State. #NTV v @farukmercan
— ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) December 30, 2013
He also discussed the process of obtaining surveillance orders during the investigation, highlighting that even the judges approving these orders were not fully aware of the investigation’s nature and scope. Kara expressed surprise that some judges did not seem to recognize the investigations’ significance or did not inform the AKP.
The interview also touched on the appointment of additional prosecutors to the case, which Kara saw as an attempt to hinder the investigation. He accused Çolakkadı of following instructions from Ankara to stall the process.
Kara also reflected on what he would have done differently in the aftermath of the operation if he had the chance to repeat it. He said that in retrospect, he would have been more discreet and careful in his dealings with those whose integrity he later questioned, such as prosecutor Ekrem Aydıner, who was appointed to the investigation shortly after the police raids.
Kara regretted that he had been too open with certain individuals about the investigation, which might have hastened the government’s intervention. He recalled a specific case in which he had inadvertently hinted to the mayor’s lawyer about the progress of the investigation into the Fatih municipality in İstanbul, which could have caused panic among corrupt officials. He also pointed to the intense surveillance he was subjected to, including the bugging and monitoring of his office with secret cameras.
With regard to the role of Çolakkadı and then-justice minister Sadullah Ergin, who were replaced shortly afterward, Kara hinted that their successors were chosen because of their willingness to commit extreme violations of the law.
Kara explained that these appointments reflect a broader pattern within government where individuals with either questionable backgrounds or a desire for recognition and status are placed in positions in which they are expected to perform unethical or illegal tasks. He gave examples of police officers with dubious pasts being reinstated to positions of influence and others who showed a lack of integrity or were driven by personal ambition.
Kara noted that in the decade following the closure of the corruption investigation, the country has become a hub for drugs and international mafia operations and that the institutional integrity of the state has been severely compromised. According to Kara, the blatant disregard of laws and norms by the top leadership without democratic resistance has led to a cascading effect of lawlessness throughout society. This gradual deterioration has led to a situation where the legal and ethical structures of the state have been severely damaged.
When asked if he could summarize the impact of the December 17 corruption investigation and subsequent events in Turkey, Kara said, “All corrupt, unprincipled and lawless elements in Turkey have joined forces, resulting in the defeat of honesty and the honest. In reality, the losers were those driven by various self-interests and Turkey as a whole, a fact that will soon be clearly and painfully understood. The supporters and participants of this dirty alliance will be plagued by remorse, but it will be too late to turn back.”
Nevertheless, Kara expressed hope that the rule of law will return to Turkey and that those who engage in unlawful activities will be held accountable.