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No change in top army, intel seats after failed coup attempt: Erdoğan
Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) chief Hakan Fidan, who has faced criticism before and after the failed military coup attempt of July 15, and Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar will both remain in their positions during an upcoming “transition process,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said. “He did not offer his resignation. We did not discuss this,” Erdogan said in an interview with the France 24 television station after an unscheduled meeting with Fidan at the presidential palace on July 22, while admitting that there had been an intelligence failure. “There was a weakness regarding intelligence, a failure,” he added, while also noting that such failures had also been seen in the U.S. over the September 11, 2001 attacks and the recent attacks in Belgium and France. Erdoğan said Fidan and Akar, who was held hostage by the plotters on the night of the attempted coup, would be staying on but their positions were under review. “If we have to make a decision [on their future], I will weigh it up with my prime minister [Binali Yıldırım]. At present we are in a transition period. We have a saying, ‘you do not change your horse halfway down the road,’” he added. Daily Hürriyet had reported earlier that Erdoğan criticized Fidan in their meeting, to which Fidan replied: “Whatever you order, I’m ready to do.” Erdogan had previously complained of finding out about the coup not from the intelligence services but from his brother-in-law, while also being unable to reach Fidan. Prime Minister Yıldırım, meanwhile, said he found out about what was happening 15 minutes after the coup attempt started, having had no idea of the impending threat. “Even looking at things in the most positive way, there was an intelligence weakness,” Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli admitted to private broadcaster NTV. Posted by: Steve White 2016-07-25 |
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