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A founding member of Türkiye's Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) was sentenced Monday to 16 years and eight months in prison on charges of obtaining state secrets for political purposes.
Metin Gurcan, a former soldier and academic who helped establish the opposition party, was convicted of "obtaining information that should remain confidential due to the state's security and political interests."
This is not the first time Gurcan has been arrested. The most recent development occurred in 2021, when he was detained at his home in Istanbul as part of an investigation by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. He was charged with 'obtaining state secrets for political or espionage purposes.
After being transferred to Ankara, Gurcan underwent questioning at the Ankara Police Department's Counterterrorism Unit. Following his interrogation, prosecutors requested his detention on charges of "political and military espionage," which a magistrate approved.
During his police questioning, Gurcan acknowledged meeting with foreign mission officials but denied espionage allegations. "In these meetings, I shared charts and analyses containing weekly developments that I prepared about Türkiye and the Middle East," he stated in his testimony. "However, I absolutely reject espionage claims. I never shared official information and documents with any diplomat who had confidentiality classifications."
Gurcan said he had been providing consulting services openly to individuals and institutions since 2019, receiving payment in return. He claimed his analyses of developments in Türkiye, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Libya were compiled from publicly available sources.
Police also questioned Gurcan about discussions with a foreign mission official regarding Turkish drones in Karabagh. When asked about conversations with someone described as an intelligence operative using the term "headquarters," Gurcan responded, "I wanted to emphasize that it was time to go to my own party's headquarters. There is confusion here. This is a basic English term commonly used even in the business world and civilian life."
The DEVA Party was founded in 2020 by former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, who previously served in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government before breaking away to form the opposition party.
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