Turkey has formally asked Germany to extradite a key suspect in last year’s failed coup attempt. But the mystery surrounding the “disappearing imam” is not about to disappear.
He has been dubbed the “air force imam”, the “disappearing imam” and the “black box” of the July 2016 Turkish coup attempt, to name just a few of many monikers. As for speculation as to his whereabouts, they have ranged from Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, a London market, the US embassy in Ankara, an unmarked grave somewhere in Turkey or the bottom of the Black Sea.
Such is the level of mystery surrounding Adil Oksuz, the key link in the Turkish government’s assertion that the coup plot was masterminded by Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Germany has now joined the list of likely Oksuz destination spots, with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu revealing on Wednesday that Ankara had sent Berlin a diplomatic note requesting his extradition.
Following reports in the Turkish press that Oksuz was spotted in Germany, Cavusoglu told state broadcaster TRT Haber that, “If this person is there, we ask that he be located, taken into custody and returned to Turkey.”
According to uncorroborated reports in the Turkish press, Oksuz was sighted in the German cities of Frankfurt and Ulm. Another report claimed he had been granted a temporary residence permit in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg.
German officials do not provide information on asylum-seekers, citing international agreements. At a press briefing in Berlin on Wednesday, German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer confirmed that the Turkish request had been received, but he stressed that the government had no information on whether Oksuz is currently in Germany.
‘The linchpin, the connector’
A theology lecturer at a university in the city of Sakarya, near Istanbul, Oksuz was spotted near an Ankara military base on the night of the attempted coup, then was detained and subsequently released. He has since gone missing, making him Turkey’s second-most-wanted man and arguably the most intriguing figure in the coup case.
“He’s the linchpin, the connector in the Turkish government’s version of events, the link between the coup plotters and the Gulen movement,” explained Aaron Stein, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. “His story is compelling because he was arrested that night before he went missing and there’s been a manhunt for him since.”
According to Turkish prosecutors, Oksuz made three trips to the US between March and July 2016, when he visited Gulen at his home-in-exile in the Poconos Mountains. Pro-government Turkish media outlets have widely published photographs of a frail Gulen meeting Oksuz and his family at the septuagenarian cleric’s compound in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.
But in an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24 last month, Gulen dismissed allegations that the visit constituted the smoking gun in the coup investigation. “A few years ago, he (Oksuz) came here once. I later saw in the media this picture with his child with me. This is something hundreds of people do. From taking a picture to making that kind of connection would be jumping to conclusions,” said Gulen.
Alleged links to Turkey’s spy agency
A year and one month after the coup attempt, the fugitive is still at large and the Turkish government’s claim that Oksuz is the connector of all dots in the case is looking weaker than ever.
The Turkish government claims that Oksuz was mistakenly released by local courts in the immediate and confusing aftermath of the coup. But critics remain skeptical, particularly since Turkish authorities have detained more than 50,000 people in a post-coup crackdown. A massive purge has seen around 145,000 people dismissed from their jobs, including opposition supporters with no links to the Gulen movement.
Opposition figures also note that the two judges who ordered Oksuz’s release after the coup attempt have not been arrested – unlike hundreds of their colleagues – feeding Turkish opposition rumours that the coup was part of a power grab by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
