Erdogan appoints US-indicted police chief as counsellor at Turkish embassy in Switzerland

Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm

A former bodyguard of the Turkish president, indicted in the United States and involved in covert operations in Libya, has been appointed as a counsellor at the Turkish embassy in Switzerland, where federal prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for two embassy officials on charges of criminal activities.

According to reports in the Turkish media, which cited a recent appointments list from the Security Directorate General (Emniyet) on July 19, Mustafa Murat Sümercan, a police chief and former member of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s protective detail, has been appointed as the new counsellor for the interior ministry at the Turkish embassy in Bern.

The position to which Sümercan was assigned was created in 2017 by the Erdogan government to enhance Turkish intelligence operations abroad, specifically through the Directorate of Intelligence, a component of the Security Directorate General.

Operatives appointed to such roles work under the titles of Interior Ministry Counsellors (İçişleri Müşaviri) in embassies and Interior Ministry Attachés (İçişleri Ataşesi) at consulates. They also oversee police officers assigned to their respective missions. Nordic Monitor has published multiple reports revealing classified intelligence reports dispatched by these counsellors and attachés.

Sümercan’s past record illustrates the objectives the Erdogan government sought to achieve in Switzerland with such an appointment.

In 2011 Sümercan participated in clandestine operations as an embassy security officer in Tripoli, collaborating with Turkish intelligence agency MIT (Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı) to foster ties with armed jihadist groups. He later joined Erdogan’s protective detail and became a bodyguard for the Turkish president.

US indictment against bodyguards of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: 

He was indicted and faced an arrest warrant issued by US authorities for his involvement in attacking protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in May 2017 in Washington, D.C.

On July 17, 2017 a grand jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia charged him with felony assault with a dangerous weapon resulting in significant bodily injury and misdemeanor assault or threatening assault in a menacing manner.

Demonstrators protesting the policies of President Erdogan, who was visiting Washington for a White House meeting with Donald Trump, were countered by agitated supporters of the Turkish head of state and subsequently attacked by the Turkish president’s bodyguards, as shown in footage of the incident.

Another video clip appeared to show Erdogan giving the order for his security detail to attack the protesters and watching the events unfold outside the ambassador’s residence on Sheridan Circle.

According to the indictment, Sümercan, facing the protesters who were holding a rally approved by the US National Park Service, made a throat-slashing motion by moving his hand horizontally across his throat with his palm facing down. He and several others then pushed through a security cordon set up by Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers and began beating the protesters. He was identified as the person who attacked Heewa Arya, an anti-Erdogan protester, by kicking him while he lay on the ground.

Mustafa Murat Sümercan, a police chief and former member of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s protective detail:

He and others ignored commands from MPD and US Secret Service officers to stop the assault on the anti-Erdogan protesters and return to the sidewalk in front of the residence. In video footage of the incident, he is clearly seen in the front line, kicking and beating a protester who was down and bleeding on the pavement of a D.C. street.

The attack provoked outrage in the US House of Representatives, which condemned Turkey for attempting to export its violence and intolerance to American soil, with a unanimous vote of 397 to 0 on June 7, 2017 on a resolution that called for the prosecution of those involved in the assault.

The unanimous resolution passed by the US House of Representatives, which condemned Turkey for the attack against protestors in Washington, D.C.:

However, in a bizarre twist, on February 14, 2018, US federal prosecutors dropped charges against him and six others, just one day before then-secretary of state Rex Tillerson traveled to Turkey. As a result, only four of Erdogan’s 15 bodyguards are still facing arrest warrants.

Sümercan’s involvement in a 2016 coup attempt, widely regarded by many as a false flag intelligence operation designed to justify a mass purge in the Turkish military, was also documented in court cases. Judicial records revealed that he was calling various officials, including prosecutors and police chiefs, to order the detention of senior military officers in Antalya, despite lacking the jurisdiction or mandate to do so.

He will be working under diplomatic immunity in Switzerland, where two Turkish diplomats — then-press attaché Hacı Mehmet Gani and Hakan Kamil Yerge, then-second secretary at the Turkish embassy in Bern— were implicated in a 2016 plot to drug and kidnap a Swiss-Turkish businessman.

In June 2018 the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland issued arrest warrants for the two Turkish diplomats and confirmed that they would be arrested upon their entry into Switzerland. According to local reports, criminal proceedings against the two diplomats were launched in March 2017. Yerge left Switzerland in November 2016, whereas Gani remained until August 2017.

The Turkish diplomats were specifically accused of gathering political intelligence for another state and attempting to kidnap a Swiss businessman of Turkish descent. The businessman, reportedly affiliated with the Gülen movement and residing in Switzerland for about 30 years, had been a staunch critic of Erdogan’s policies. The Gülen movement has been outspoken against various aspects of Erdogan’s government, including allegations of pervasive corruption and Turkey’s support for armed jihadist groups in Libya, Syria and elsewhere.

Sümercan’s wife, Elif Uzun Sümercan, was identified as one of the most notorious torturers in Turkey, abusing and ill-treating top-ranking generals who were held illegally at an unofficial detention site in Ankara in 2016. Multiple victims testified in court, naming her as one of the key police officers who were engaged in brutal torture sessions for days. She was deputy chief of the Ankara Police Department’s counterterrorism unit at the time. She was rewarded by Erdogan, who appointed her as a department head at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.