Some influential members of the Turkish Commission of Inquiry in charge
of investigating the failed coup of July 15, have expressed their
intention to investigate the contacts made in the past between Fatullah
Gulen - theTurkish Islamic preacher expatriated in the USA in 1999,
accused by Ankara of being the instigator of the failed coup - and the
Holy See.
In recent days, newspapers considered aligned with the Turkish
government such as Aksam and Yeni Safak, reported statements by the
Vice President of the Commission of Inquiry, Selcuk Ozdag, who is a
deputy member of the AKP, the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan:
"Before leaving Turkey", said Ozdag, "Fethullah Gülen met the Pope (John
Paul II, ed) in the Vatican. Who put them in touch? One should ask the
Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Vatican".
Similar statements about the possibility of involving the Holy See in
the work of the Commission of Inquiry were also expressed by Aykut
Erdogdu, deputy of the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk
Partisi, CHP), opposition political party.
Fethullah Gulen met Pope John Paul II in February 1998 at the Vatican.
Journalist Mine Kirikkanat, in an article inspired by the more creative
conspiracy and published in Cumhuriyet newspaper on Sunday, August 7,
had gone so far as to insinuate that Fethullah Gulen could be the
Cardinal created "in pectore" by the Polish Pope who died on April 2,
2005, and never mentioned by him.