Reserve Colonel Levent Göktash is believed to have been a member of what Ankara considers a terrorist organization FETO
Colonel Levent Göktash from the reserve of the Turkish Army was captured in Bulgaria, leading Turkish media reported.
The man was wanted on a red notice by Interpol for the murder of the intellectual writer Necip Hablemitoglu. Göktaş is the main suspect in the death of the writer, who was shot dead in his home in December 2002.
The killing went unsolved for many years, but authorities had come to suspect it was carried out by members of preacher Fethullah Gulen’s FETO group, which Ankara says was also behind the July 2016 coup attempt.
It was after the failed coup that the authorities in Turkey renewed the investigation into the writer’s death. Thus, in 2021, the indictment against Colonel Göktash was filed in the court in Ankara for participating in the assassination plot. A charge of membership in FETO has also been brought against him.
He is also believed to have had ties to alleged mob boss Sedat Peker.
Then the military man managed to escape, but the Turkish authorities submitted to Interpol documents for his search with a red notice.
According to the Turkish media, the Turkish Ministry of Justice has already submitted a request to the Bulgarian authorities for the extradition of Levent Göktash to Turkey, and actions along these lines have already begun.
Necip Hablemitoglu was one of the first intellectuals in Turkey who spoke about the danger of the actions of Fethullah Gülen’s organization as a network that, under the guise of religion, aims to seize positions of power in the state, as well as the expansion of Gülen’s network abroad, mainly in Germany.
Photo: Police of the Republic of Turkey
