Turkish intelligence agencies continue to uncover details of a massive conspiracy prepared by the terrorist organization FETÖ (Fethullah Gülen movement) against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It has emerged that assassination attempts were made long before the famous 2016 coup, with scenarios for eliminating the country's leader ranging from a mass killing at a parade to shooting down his plane in mid-air.
Information about new details of the investigation appeared in the Turkish publication Turkiye Gazetesi, as cited by RBC-Ukraine. According to a source in the security service, shortly before the attempted coup, the president was scheduled to visit military exercises. However, due to suspicious activities noticed, his visit was canceled at the last moment.
Scenario modeled after the assassination of Sadat
Later, it became known that the conspirators planned to eliminate Erdoğan following a scenario reminiscent of the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, which took place on October 6, 1981, during a military parade in Cairo.
A source in the intelligence services described the structure of the preparation for the terrorist act: "They deployed a sort of suicide squad in this area. The organization was structured in such a way that regardless of whether this squad achieved its goal or not, they could not be captured alive".
A reminder of how close the conspirators came to their goal remains the bullet marks on the facade of the hotel where the president stayed during the events of 2016. These marks are still visible today.
Plan to shoot down the plane and fabricate a flight
Retired Brigadier General Ibrahim Büyükbash revealed an even bolder part of the plan. According to him, the leadership of FETÖ considered Erdoğan's presence the main obstacle to the coup and developed a scenario for his elimination in the air.
The key element of the operation was a plane of a foreign airline, which was kept at Dalaman Airport. The conspirators were counting on a helicopter that was supposed to pick up the president directly from the hotel.
"If the helicopters managed to pick him up from the hotel, Erdoğan would have been put on that plane and executed in mid-air. Moreover, they would have slandered our president with lies that 'he fled with kilograms of gold and millions of dollars and died in a clash with security forces'," Büyükbash said.
The former commander of the Cyber Defense of the Turkish Ministry of National Defense called Erdoğan's departure from the hotel a few minutes before the arrival of the killer groups an event that changed the course of history.
Global context: Assassination attempts on leaders in 2024
Events in Turkey echo the growing number of assassination attempts on political leaders around the world. In April 2024, a gunman opened fire during a dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association at the Washington Hilton hotel, where US President Donald Trump was present. The White House Press Secretary confirmed that the attacker intended to kill the head of state and other officials.
In May 2024, a similar incident occurred in Slovakia. Then, an assassination attempt was made on Prime Minister Robert Fico. The attacker wounded the politician with four shots, after which he was urgently taken to the hospital by helicopter.
