Turkey freezes assets of 770 people for links to terrorist organisations

Turkish authorities on Friday froze the assets of 770 people linked to organisations considered by Ankara to be terrorist organisations that "abuse religion" or are markedly left-leaning. This was announced by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance with the publication of an extensive document that lists the names, dates of birth, place of residence and identification numbers of those involved, as well as the groups of which they are allegedly members. 

The document, published in the Official Journal, concerns 454 members of the movement of the cleric Fethullah Gülen (FETÖ), 108 people belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and 119 others linked to various religious terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah, Daesh and Al Qaeda. The last 84 people on the list belong to the People's Revolutionary Liberation Party, a political-military formation with a Marxist-Leninist ideology considered terrorist by the European Union and the United States.

The signatures of the finance and interior ministers, Nureddin Nebati and Süleyman Soylu, endorse a document based on crimes of terrorist financing and illegal fundraising. The Turkish government is thus implementing the law to prevent the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, passed in parliament a year ago, which uses the fight against terrorist organisations to tighten its grip on civil society groups.  

The measure, denounced after its approval by Human Rights Watch, allows the authorities to freeze the funds of any individual or organisation suspected of collaborating with groups considered terrorist by Ankara. A legal mechanism that would make it easier for the government to restrict the activities of independent civic movements. In this regard, listed individuals can appeal the decision to the Ankara Criminal Court, with little room for manoeuvre. 

Among those affected by the asset freeze are prominent opposition figures such as academic Adil Öksüz, accused of involvement in the 2016 coup and membership of the FETÖ; exiled former prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, also linked to the Gülen Movement; and former president of the pro-Kurdish HDP, Selahattin Demirtaş. The group is mostly made up of Gulenist profiles and Kurdish representatives, the bulk of the dissent against Erdoğan. 

The members of the list are divided into four categories: those belonging to the Gülen Movement, PKK members, those linked to terrorist organisations using religion and those belonging to left-wing terrorist organisations. However, there is one exception involving a legal entity. This is the Niagara Foundation, a non-profit organisation whose honorary president is Fethullah Gülen. 

Based in Chicago and active in eight US states, the Niagara Foundation was founded in 2004 by a group of Turkish-American businessmen and educators "to realise the vision of their spiritual leader, Fethullah Gülen", according to the organisation itself. During this period, the cleric was in exile in Pennsylvania after being persecuted by the deeply secular Kemalist authorities, who were suspicious of the intentions of religious groups. 

This period was characterised by the alliance between Gulenism and the Justice and Development Party (AKP). This cooperation enabled the Islamists to gain access to the government in 2007 thanks to the infiltration of Gülen's followers into the various state bodies. However, since Erdoğan became president in 2014, the collusion between the AKP and the FETÖ began to crack due to their political differences, whose visions diverged over relations with the West.

The failed coup in July 2015, which left 265 people dead, finally unravelled the ties between Erdoğan's government and the Gülen movement. The president blamed the cleric and his supporters for organising the uprising and accelerated the erosion of democratic precepts to shield his power.  

In the wake of the coup, Erdoğan has sifted through all levels of the state, from the judiciary to the military, to remove the imprint of Gulenism. And he has pushed through a series of legal reforms that make it easier to track down and prosecute dissent, including a law that gives the government the power to freeze the assets of organisations labelled as terrorist organisations.