"The majority of FETÖ members in Azerbaijan were people close to the authorities, and many of them are still in office"

On July 23, Turkish media and at the same time local media wrote that an operation was conducted in Azerbaijan against FETÖ, four people were arrested. As reported, one of the former heads of FETO in Azerbaijan, Deirush Jafarov, Gumrah Abdurahmanov, responsible for the financial affairs of the organization, Ruslan Aliyev, director of the “Yurd” Center, and Anar Aliyev, responsible for organizational work, were detained.

Later, the chairman of the "Democracy and Prosperity" Party of Azerbaijan, Gubad Ibadoglu, was detained. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has circulated a report that Gubad Ibadoglu is suspected of having links with FETÖ. According to the report, Anar Aliyev, who was arrested as a member of FETÖ, testified that Gubad Ibadoglu had sold him fake dollars. This served as the basis for a search of the economist's office. Gubad Ibadoglu, during his speech in court, stated that he was not familiar with Anar Aliyev.

By the way, the media reports say that FETÖ has a network in Azerbaijani media as well. What is happening? Why has the issue of FETÖ become relevant again ?

Security expert and political commentator Arastun Orujlu answers questions related to this topic.

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Question: The issue of "nursists", "Gulenists", "Fetoists" appeared on the agenda in Azerbaijan in 2016 after the failed "darbe" (coup d'etat) attempt in Turkey. At that time, there was a wave of arrests in Azerbaijan called "hunting for nursists" (even some oppositionists were arrested under this pretext), universities and lyceums were closed. What happened that the issue of "FETÖ" was again on the agenda?

Answer: This topic has always been relevant in Turkey, and the hunt for FETÖ members, launched as a result of the failed "coup" in the summer of 2016, was only one of the stages of this process. It was then that the Turkish government set its sights on the positions of its domestic competitors in Azerbaijan. By the way, this campaign covered not only Azerbaijan, but also dealt a blow to the positions of FETOISTS in many post-Soviet countries. All this was done then at the request of the Erdogan authorities and destroyed the positions of the so-called "nurchi" in the field of education, business, charity, and medical structures of these countries. As part of this campaign, several schools (lyceums), a university, a mosque and a number of business structures were closed in Azerbaijan. After that, from time to time, at the request of the Turkish Government, individual citizens of this country accused of belonging to this network were detained and handed over to Turkish law enforcement agencies. And the fact that the topic is being raised again today, I think, mostly happened at the request of the Azerbaijani side. At least that is the appearance. Although it is formally stated that the request came from Turkish law enforcement agencies, all the detainees are Azerbaijani citizens, and it is unknown to what extent they were FETOISTS. By the way, the absolute majority of the so-called Fetoists in Azerbaijan were people belonging to the authorities or close to the authorities, many of them are still in office. Naturally, business structures too. Therefore, it is difficult to say what is happening, although certain assumptions are being made. For example, they claim that this topic was planted in order to sideline the public discussions that have been constantly expanding recently about the activities of a secret network in Azerbaijan associated with the terrorist organization PKK. There is also a version according to which the campaign against FETOISTS is an integral part of the repressive campaign gaining momentum in the country. Time will tell which of these versions and to what extent corresponds to reality. The version associated with the PKK cannot be considered completely unfounded, because for some reason I do not recall a joint operation between Azerbaijan and Turkey against members of the PKK, who, logically, are more dangerous to the Turkish state and threaten the sovereignty of this country.

Question: Is there a threat of FETÖ in Azerbaijan? If so, where does it come from and from whom?

Answer: In all likelihood, such a network exists and as already mentioned, the absolute majority of them are people belonging to the ruling camp. And this is natural, because if you believe what they say about FETÖ, the main goal of the nursist network is to penetrate state and government structures, create a business network and influence state policy through all these resources. If you remember, in 2016 and at the subsequent stage, the absolute majority of those whose name appeared in the media in connection with this organization were people from the power camp. Among them were mentioned high-ranking officials of the Presidential Administration, some members of Parliament. They were eventually removed from their posts. Today, the danger of FETÖ, frankly speaking, does not seem very plausible. At least, this topic is not on the country's agenda, and, as already mentioned, it looks more like pushing some other topics into the background. In any case, this version seems more plausible to me. The reason for this conclusion is exceptional diligence in connection with the topic of the FETO stratum, which, as it seems to me, is connected with the PKK.

Question: As you know, this accusation was also made against the chairman of the ADR party, Gubad Ibadoglu. How plausible is Gubad Ibadoglu 's connection with FETÖ ?

Answer: The allegations about Gubad Ibadoglu's connection with FETÖ are similar to political speculation and, to put it mildly, the faded statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs made shortly after the arrest of the ADR chairman also confirms this opinion. Personally, I do not believe it, and I have good reasons for it. I will say only one thing: the main reason for the refusal of BIZ (Birlik Inkişafa Zəmanətdir – Unity is a Guarantee of Development) to some people who wanted to get access to the platform when it was created was that Gubad bey put forward arguments in favor of their belonging to the Gulen network. A subsequent study conducted by me personally also confirmed what was said. Therefore, I consider this statement about Gubad Ibadoglu to be a product of violent fantasy.

Question: In the reports distributed in the pro-government media, it is said that FETÖ also has a network in the Azerbaijani media. What does such a confession mean?

Answer: It is probably planned to take measures against critical journalists, which is why this idea was put into circulation. I do not see any other reason. If we are talking about media platforms created by Ali Hasanov, then most of them have either closed or changed their "shoulder straps" in accordance with the existing political conjuncture. In this case, the question arises where the next FETOists will be found. The answer lies on the surface - among a handful of critical journalists.

Question: The recent increase in political arrests, the Law "On Political Parties", arrests of Shiites, and now arrests under the pretext of Fetoists. What does all this mean? What are the authorities preparing for?

Answer: In my opinion, the talk that there will be changes in a number of administrative structures of the country is not accidental. Among them, the most reliable seem to be the spreading thoughts about the formation of a new parliament and that in this regard, appropriate changes will be made to the legislation. This, in turn, provides for a referendum. In other words, it is possible that a referendum will be held at the upcoming stage, followed by parliamentary elections. It seems that the main preparations are being made in order to ensure "calm" in the country at that stage and in its run-up. If what is said is true, then "FETOists", "Iranian spies", "piglets" and others will be exposed and neutralized. Another reason may be the implementation of "preventive measures" in order to prevent internal discontent that may arise against the background of the escalating geopolitical struggle around Azerbaijan and the region.