One of the murder suspect of the assasination of academic Necip Hablemitoğlu twenty years ago, who was on alleged to have links with the Gülenist network has been brought to Turkey from Ukraine with an intelligence operation, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a televized interview on Jan. 26.
“MIT (National Intelligence Organization) has been tracking Nuri Gökhan Bozkır, one of the murder suspects of this assassination, for a long time. Our intelligence spotted that he was hiding in Ukraine. We talked with (Ukraine’s President Volodimir) Zelenskiy and previous heads of state about the capture of this person and bringing him to our country. This person is accountable to the judiciary of our country as the suspect of the murder. This operation has come to an end. Apart from his liason to the FETÖ, he is also known to supply weapons and ammunition to DAESH, (ISIS)” Erdoğan said during the interview.
Historian-author Assoc. Dr. Necip Hablemitoğlu was killed in an armed attack in front of his house in Ankara on 18 december 2002. He was known by his researches about illegal activities of the Gülenist network, or the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, FETÖ, as the government calls, which has been indicted to orchestrate the thwarded July 15 2016 coup attempt. The investigations over his murder has left unsolved.
In 2015 Ankara prosecutors have opened an investigation into FETÖ’s involvement in unsolved murders committed between 2000 and 2013, which included Hablemitoğlu’s murder. As a part of the investigation one of the suspects, Bozkır was detained in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine in 2019, after an Interpol issued a red notice. Turkey’s extradition request had been postponed due to Bozkır’s trial process in Ukraine.
Erdoğan announced that MİT captured Bozkır in Ukraine and brought him to Turkey with an intelligence operation.
Hablemitoğlu family lawyer Ersan Barkın stated on his social media account that they are informed about the capture of the suspect by Erdoğan’s televized announcement. “We hope that it will contribute to the enlightenment of the murder and the exposion of the power behind it,” Barkın posted on Jan. 27.
