From Hiding Money To Media Control, Scandalous Tapes Proven Authenic

A-day long ordeal to hide $1 billion cash, bashing media patrons, mocking Qur'an and arranging hookers. Scandalous voice recordings of Turkey's then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, family and ministers that rocked the nation for months have largely been proven authentic following an examination by the authorities.

The Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK), after conducting an examination of the sound recordings pertaining to the graft investigation made public on Dec. 17 and 25 of last year, concluded on Tuesday that 95.7 percent of the recordings are authentic. Erdoğan and his ministers claimed repeatedly that the recordings are doctored, but failed to provide evidence in this regard.

According to a report in the Hürriyet daily on Tuesday, the Audio and Video Examination Unit of the ATK found that 2,483 of the 2,593 transcripts of the sound recordings had no “sentence addition or subtraction that would alter the meaning of the whole.”

The graft investigations revealed the biggest corruption and bribery scandal in the history of the republic, in which some members of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government as well as family members of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were allegedly implicated.

The ATK's report also negated claims by former Interior Minister Muammer Güler who, after the sound recordings went public, had said: “Unfortunately in our sound recordings I saw that there have been additions with regards to references to money. They have been done very well. [However] it's possible to understand [they've been tampered with] at first listen.”

10 recordings missing

In addition to the sound recordings being verified as authentic, 10 transcripts in the case folders were not found in digital format. The ID numbers of the sound recordings that went missing are 21917665303, 1811870467, 1830979305, 1830979305, 1830985149, 1830994485, 183101233, 1831058204, 1831731481 and 1875507124.
It is unknown if the ID numbers of the sound recordings that the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) said had been tampered with were included in the examination.
Experts had strongly criticized a report by TÜBİTAK which came out earlier this year stating that a voice recording between then-Prime Minister Erdoğan and his son Bilal suggesting that the two were attempting to hide unknown amounts of cash in their family home was a "montage,” saying the report was far from scientific and is instead politically motivated.
The parliamentary Corruption Investigation Commission formed to investigate corruption and bribery claims of four former ministers of the AK Party -- Muammer Güler, Zafer Çağlayan, Egemen Bağış and Erdoğan Bayraktar -- who were incriminated in the Dec. 17 graft probe has increased the number of topics to be included in the investigation upon a request from opposition deputies.
Opposition deputies now want questions regarding the ATK's examination to be answered, requesting that an investigation be conducted into where the 10 missing recordings are or whether they were included in the examination. Deputies from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in particular also requested that the police officers who had been re-assigned or suspended come and testify in Parliament.

‘Why are we not being called up by Investigation Commission?'

Former İstanbul Financial Crimes Unit Deputy Chief Yasin Topçu asked on his Twitter account why the police officers involved in the graft investigation were not being called in to testify to the Investigation Commission. Writing that couriers and even watch salesmen were being called in while the statements of him and his colleagues were not being recorded, Topçu said the commission was choosing not to use the real 504-page summary of the investigation, opting instead for a 309-page revised version which has missing information.
At the heart of the probe is Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, who was allegedly involved in a money-laundering scheme as part of a strategy to bypass US-led sanctions on Iran. If the audio recordings leaked over the Internet are authentic, Zarrab had bribed some ministers and their sons to ensure that his business dealings ran smoothly.
Prosecutor Ekrem Aydıner on Oct. 16 dropped the charges against the 53 suspects in the Dec. 17 graft case, including Zarrab and Halkbank General Manager Süleyman Aslan, sparking a public backlash.
The testimonies given to the investigation commission support the allegations of bribery and corruption. Yusuf Tutuş, the watch salesman who mediated the gift of a TL 700,000 watch from Zarrab to former Economy Minister Çağlayan, said in his testimony: “I know Reza Zarrab. He is one of my best customers. He buys a lot of watches from me; he roughly buys 20-30 watches a year from me and gives them out as gifts. As far as I know he likes giving gifts. The prices of the watches he buys range from 20,000 to 50,000 euros.”
“We do more than 1 million euros worth of trade with Reza Zarrab. He pays my fees without delay. The watch he wanted brought in from Switzerland is the world's most valuable watch brand. It's made of white gold. I later learned that the watch is apparently around 300,000 francs. He [Zarrab] said, ‘We are going to buy this watch and give to our brother.' I don't know who he meant by brother,” said Tutuş.
Zarrab's Iranian courier Mohammed Sadık had also testified to the commission about carrying money from İstanbul to Ankara. Upon being reminded that there were claims that he and Murat Öziş had carried 2 million euros, $2 million and TL 1.5 million in backpacks on Aug. 30, 2013 and delivered them to Salih Kaan Çağlayan on the 10th floor of the Başkent Ankara Royal hotel, Sadık said, “On the specified date we were told to carry money to Ankara.”
Sadık went on to say: “I went with Murat [Öziş]. They [the police] opened the bag after we went through the X-ray at the airport. The police closed the bag and returned it to us. I don't remember who we gave the money to.”

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Select recordings from December graft probe

‘Most of the money distributed, 30 million euros left'

According to a sound recording that allegedly took place on Dec. 17, 2013, then-Prime Minister Erdoğan asks his son Burak, “By saying mostly, did you fully dissolve it [the money]?” Burak replies: “We haven't zeroed it yet, Dad. Let me explain. We still have 30 million euros that we could not dissolve yet.”

Sümeyye Erdoğan chooses villas in Urla

According to a sound recording that went public on Feb. 1, a voice allegedly belonging to Erdoğan's daughter Sümeyye Erdoğan talks to Latif Topbaş, a long-time friend of Erdoğan, about the villas being constructed in Urla, İzmir, a protected site. According to the recording, the villas were saved from demolition after Erdoğan had reassigned the district governor.

Businessmen ordered to buy Sabah, ATV

According to a sound recording allegedly between Erdoğan and Former Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Binali Yıldırım, Erdoğan is heard giving orders for Yıldırım to oversee the buying of the Sabah newspaper and ATV TV channel by a group of businessmen from the Çalık Group.

‘Hello Fatih' -- Intervention in media

According to a sound recording, Fatih Saraç, an executive at the Habertürk daily and TV channel, took orders from then-Prime Minister Erdoğan regarding the subtitles of the channel. In another recording, Erdoğan gets angry with Saraç over news coverage of then-İstanbul mayoral candidate Mustafa Sarıgül.

Insulting people, ridiculing Quran

According to a sound recording allegedly between Mehmet Cengiz and Celal Koloğlu, both businessmen involved in the construction of İstanbul's new third airport, Cengiz says, “Were going to f**k the people.” In another recording, this time allegedly between former EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış and a journalist friend, Bağış talks about Surah Baqara, of one of the chapters of the Quran, and uses the rhyming word “makara,” which means to fool around. (Cihan/Today’s Zaman)