Former deputy police commissioner Hüseyin Korkmaz says in a final recorded interview, posted on YouTube after his death earlier this month, that the December 2013 corruption raids he helped lead were driven by evidence rather than a plot to topple Turkey’s government under then-prime minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Korkmaz, 38, who died in exile in the United States following a battle with cancer, spoke in an interview taped shortly before his death and made public Sunday by Turkish journalist Adem Yavuz Arslan. The recording features Korkmaz’s account of the 2013 anti-corruption operation that shook Turkish politics, drew global attention and resulted in sweeping arrests of police officers and prosecutors soon after.
The December 2013 anti-corruption raids represented a critical turning point in Turkish politics. Led by Korkmaz, a deputy commissioner in the Turkish police’s Financial Crimes Division, and other senior police officials, the probes uncovered a network involving high-profile figures, including Erdoğan’s family members, four cabinet ministers and executives at Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank. The investigation began with allegations of bribery and smuggling orchestrated by Iranian-Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab to bypass US sanctions on Iran, but it quickly expanded to reveal systemic corruption at the highest levels of government.
On December 17, 2013 police raided the homes and offices of key suspects, seizing millions of dollars in cash hidden in shoeboxes. Wiretapped phone conversations implicated Erdoğan’s close associates, including his son Bilal, in directing and facilitating the illicit transactions. The revelations sent shockwaves through Turkey, prompting the resignation of the four ministers and sparking mass protests.
However, Erdoğan’s government responded by framing the investigation as a coup attempt orchestrated by the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by the late Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen. Erdoğan dismissed the allegations as baseless and accused prosecutors and police officers involved in the probe of being part of a “parallel state” working to undermine his rule.
In the interview Korkmaz denies claims by Erdoğan’s administration that the operation was a “judicial coup” carried out by police and members of the judiciary sympathetic to cleric Gülen.
The Turkish government accused Gülen, an Islamic cleric then living in self-imposed exile in the United States who passed away in October 2024, and his supporters of orchestrating what it called a “parallel state.” After a coup attempt in July 2016, for which Erdoğan squarely blamed Gülen and his movement, authorities proceeded with sweeping arrests and mass purges across the military, judiciary, media and education sectors. Thousands of alleged Gülen followers were detained, institutions linked to the movement were shuttered and assets were seized, marking one of Turkey’s largest crackdowns in recent history.
Korkmaz presents documents and surveillance logs that he says emerged from routine investigative work as what led to the investigation resulting in the police raids. He describes a monthslong effort to track suspicious bank transactions and money drops involving Zarrab.
“There was no push to overthrow anyone,” Korkmaz says in the interview. “We were police officers acting on credible information about bribes and secret deals.” He attributes the high stakes of the probe to the prominence of officials named in the case and the large sums of money that flowed under the guise of gold or food exports. Korkmaz insists the team followed proper procedure by bringing any evidence implicating active ministers to the attention of the Turkish parliament, as required by law.
Turkish authorities, however, shut down the investigation, removed police from their posts and jailed leading figures on the case. Korkmaz himself was arrested in 2014 and spent 17 months behind bars. He claims in the interview that he was treated as a threat to national security because the investigation touched Erdoğan’s inner circle.
The raids, which took place on December 17 and December 25, 2013, exposed alleged bribes linked to construction projects, illicit finance and other deals. Four ministers resigned following a public outcry. But Erdoğan quickly labeled the probe a conspiracy, claiming that a “parallel state” within law enforcement had set out to discredit his administration. Media outlets close to the government published front-page headlines calling the operation a “coup attempt.” Senior police officials who had supervised the raids, including Korkmaz, were fired or reassigned. In addition to the prosecutors who worked on the case, even those who were seen as sympathetic to the probe were relieved of their duties, and many ended up on trial themselves.
After his release in February 2016, Korkmaz fled Turkey. He soon surfaced in the United States, where he gave testimony in a New York federal court that helped prosecutors indict Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Halkbank. Korkmaz’s statements supported allegations that Turkish banks played a key role in helping Zarrab launder billions in Iranian oil revenue. Zarrab pleaded guilty and became a cooperating witness, acknowledging that he paid bribes to high-level Turkish officials to keep the money flowing.
Korkmaz recounts in the interview that he feared for his life in Turkey after the failed coup. State media outlets portrayed him as a traitor. “I did not want to leave my homeland,” he says, “but there was no longer any rule of law.” He decided his safest option was to seek asylum in the US.
Denying claims that he was paid large sums of money by the US government, Korkmaz says the $50,000 lump sum provided by US authorities was reimbursement for travel, housing and related expenses during his cooperation in the trial, adding that it did not cover all his costs. He had to pay smugglers to facilitate his escape from Turkey since his passport had been revoked by the Turkish government. He emphasizes that the payment was not a bribe but a routine allowance for witnesses who relocate to testify, noting that he still had to work various jobs, including driving for a ride-hailing company, before enrolling in an information technology training program.
The Turkish pro-government media claim Korkmaz was fed instructions from the US government for the corruption probe. In the interview, Korkmaz dismisses those allegations as propaganda, stating that no such arrangements existed during the 2013 probes. He says he had no contact with US authorities until long after he was released from prison. He also describes how he felt compelled to speak truthfully in US court because Turkey’s justice system had failed to handle the corruption claims on their merits.
Korkmaz shares specific events leading up to the December 17 raids, including the moment one of Zarrab’s associates spotted an undercover police camera. He says that prompted the investigators to act, fearing the suspects would destroy evidence if they realized surveillance was under way. Korkmaz calls the claim that the operation was timed to sabotage upcoming elections “nonsense,” explaining that election dates were never a factor in police decisions.
Korkmaz also addresses the social media leaks of high-profile phone recordings that allegedly included conversations between Erdoğan and his son, Bilal, about moving large sums of cash. He says he was not behind the leaks, adding that once phone intercepts and transcripts were provided to prosecutors, they circulated among defense teams and other officials outside his control. Turkish authorities labeled the recordings fake and launched separate investigations into who released them to platforms like YouTube and Twitter.
In the interview Korkmaz laments that his former colleagues remain in prison, many serving long sentences for alleged involvement in the so-called “parallel state.” He claims these were honest officers who, like him, followed the evidence where it led. “They did their jobs,” he says. “They were punished because their work exposed people in power.” He adds that many of these investigators had no link to any political group and were targeted solely for pursuing corruption.
Korkmaz touches on how the December 2013 raids became a pivotal event in Turkey’s political trajectory. He suggests that Erdoğan’s government, to shield itself from fallout, consolidated power and weakened independent institutions. Korkmaz sees the aftermath as a turning point, one that he believes eroded the separation of powers and allowed executive influence over courts. He links the country’s later political and economic problems to the decision to ignore corruption.
He ends the interview, recorded in the final phase of his illness, by reiterating that he has no regrets. “If they had not taken bribes, we wouldn’t have had to act,” he says. “The raid was not a choice but an obligation.” Korkmaz told journalist Arslan that he hoped his words would reach both Turkish and international audiences, leaving a record of what he believes happened in December 2013. News of his death this month has been met with tributes from human rights advocates and exiled Turkish dissidents, who view his life as a testament to courage in the face of tyranny.
Arslan, who posted the interview on his YouTube channel, calls it a record of Korkmaz’s final thoughts. The journalist says he tried for years to secure a thorough statement from the ex-officer and succeeded only when Korkmaz realized his cancer treatments were failing.
Testimony in the US trial
In 2017 Zarrab struck a plea deal in the sanctions evasion case before a New York federal court. Zarrab was the star witness in the trial where he, Atilla, an executive at Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank, and seven other people, including Turkey’s former economy minister and two additional Halkbank executives, were charged with engaging in transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s government and Iranian entities from 2010 to 2015 in a scheme to evade US sanctions.
Zarrab provided testimony incriminating Erdoğan and his government.
In December 2017 Korkmaz also testified in the trial as a key witness. Korkmaz’s testimony corroborated Zarrab’s claims that Erdoğan personally authorized the involvement of Turkish banks in laundering billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue.
Korkmaz detailed how the corruption probe uncovered evidence of bribes paid to Turkish officials, including former economy minister Mehmet Zafer Çağlayan and Halkbank executives. His testimony also provided insight into the systemic nature of corruption in Turkey, implicating Erdoğan as the central figure overseeing the scheme.
Korkmaz’s decision to testify in the US came at a great personal cost. Following his court appearance, Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for six of his family members, including his mother, father, wife and siblings, underscoring the lengths to which Erdoğan’s government would go to silence dissent and intimidate whistleblowers.