Ultranationalist Homeland Party (VP) Chairman Doğu Perinçek said on Tuesday that party officials had informed the pro-government Yeni Şafak daily about a possible coup attempt the day before a putsch on July 15 of last year.
Speaking during a press conference at VP İstanbul provincial headquarters, Perinçek said his deputy chairman Atilla Uğur had informed Yeni Şafak and contacted the government through their channels about the coup attempt.
“We told them to stand tall and that the coup attempt would be foiled,” he said and added that several ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies had contacted VP officials as to whether the coup attempt was real or not.
In remarks following the failed coup attempt last July, Perinçek said the “secret state, the clandestine organization that the US established in Turkey, crashed on the night of July 15 and was cleansed from the judiciary and the military.” According to Perinçek, the Turkish military has returned to its Kemalist origins, and the countries that the US wants to divide should resist it.
Despite ideological differences with the AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Perinçek, who is known for his pro-Russian and fascist views, openly supports Erdoğan’s purge and witch-hunt against faith-based Gülen movement, which the AKP and Erdoğan accuse of being behind the failed coup.
In a currently ongoing post-coup purge, over 135,000 people, including thousands within the military, have been purged due to their real or alleged connection to the Gülen movement, according to a statement by the labor minister on Jan. 10. As of Feb. 1, 89,775 people were being held without charge, with an additional 43,885 in pre-trial detention.