Justice Minister Gürlek at Anadolu's Editor's Desk: "Voluntary repayment does not close the case; we will pursue unjust gains to the end"

The fund probe: "Permission was granted for the request we wrote in August"

How did the investment fund investigation begin?

There were gains made abnormally from what we call shares, by getting in and out within a short time. Naturally this caught our attention. Our colleagues wrote to the Capital Markets Board (SPK) to request permission to investigate.

Permission to investigate was finally granted for the request we wrote in August. That is how the fund investigation began. The chief prosecutor's office can only look into these crimes once permission to investigate has been granted.

How will this process affect markets and investors?

The Turkish market and the Turkish economy are very strong. They are the apple of our eye. An incident in a small part of it should not be generalised. From the very beginning, our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been following the process.

I want to tell our citizens from here: they can rest assured. Our market, Borsa Istanbul and our investors will definitely not be affected by the ongoing investigations. I want our citizens to trust the Turkish economy, Turkish capital and its markets.

What measures have been taken so far?

As of 17 September, the SPK decided to liquidate the funds. The moment that decision was made, we as the chief prosecutor's office took all preventive measures within the scope of the permissions granted. As of now, 85 suspects have been arrested, and the assets of many people have been frozen.

Two days after the investigation began, without naming anyone, the wife of a person arrested in the fund case had given an instruction for a wire transfer of around 40 million abroad. But under a letter from our Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office, that transfer was stopped.

Our institutions are highly respected. Our President has tasked the State Supervisory Council with examining whether there was any negligence on their part. They will look into it. If there is negligence, fault, intent or bad faith, there will also be work regarding the institutions.

"Paying back twice the loss does not close the case"

Has anyone applied to the voluntary repayment account opened at the TMSF?

A repayment account was opened at the TMSF for people who want to pay back on a voluntary basis. I spoke with the TMSF chairman yesterday. Five people have made repayments into these accounts.

There is Article 107 of the Capital Markets Law, which covers this kind of manipulation. Covering twice the loss is grounds for effective remorse. But that does not mean the investigation or the case is closed. It is only a reduction provided for in the law. So the perception that no action will be taken against those who make good the loss is wrong. Action will definitely be taken against them.

How are those who made unjust gains being identified?

Based on the records sent by the SPK and Borsa Istanbul, our chief prosecutors and prosecutors established that some got in through manipulative moves within a short time, say two months, and got out with very large amounts. In other words, they cashed out a profit. We have work on this, we have a list.

They made some money transfers within a short time. We have started legal proceedings to bring this money back, including the money sent to Switzerland. We seized their personal assets. We imposed injunctions, including on title deeds.

What will happen to citizens whose money is still in the funds?

Here we have to separate those who made unjust gains from those who made legitimate gains. The decisions of the Fund Board will not place a burden on our citizens. Whoever it leads to, whatever the name, we are fighting this with determination.

We will certainly pursue our rights to the end, within the law, against those who reached into our nation's pockets and made unjust gains, and we will transfer these unjust gains to the fund set up within the TMSF.

The referees case: "Turkish football must be clean"

Where does the referees investigation stand?

Referees take official exams. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into allegations that exam questions were handed out in advance, that some referees were subjected to mobbing, and that some were deliberately given bad marks or put through disciplinary procedures to keep them from getting assignments. Right now 5 people are in custody or under arrest, and 2 are under judicial control.

Turkish football must be clean. We want referees to manage matches within the bounds of justice, independent of anyone and in line with the rules. Unfortunately, in our investigations we saw that this was not the case. There is evidence of this in the file.

Are match-fixing or betting claims in derbies also being examined?

Our prosecutors act on concrete data and evidence. There has to be concrete data showing that in a given derby a given referee made a rule error deliberately or in return for a benefit.

There are allegations of match-fixing and incentive bonuses involving referees. These are separate tracks and separate crimes. Likewise, is there any referee who bets? That is being investigated too. All of this can only be done technically, based on concrete data. MASAK (financial crimes) reports are very important here, and so are phone records.

Terror-Free Türkiye: "The arrow has left the bow"

Where does the Terror-Free Türkiye process stand?

The Terror-Free Türkiye process is very important for us. We see it as a project of the Century of Türkiye. There is no turning back from this process now. The arrow has left the bow.

The law was passed in parliament with a high vote of around 467, but passing the law and its entry into force are different things. For it to take effect, the organisation has to be dissolved with all its components and weapons.

There is a mechanism to determine and confirm the dissolution of the organisation with all its components. Our Ministry of National Defence, our intelligence agency and our National Security Council are all working on this. The process is continuing and, thank God, it is going well so far.

Unfortunately, some groups may try to provoke this process, and we will not give them a chance. Terror-Free Türkiye means our people channelling their energy into investment and enterprise, and our young people gaining job opportunities.

Unsolved murders: "However deep a crime is buried, it comes to light"

How does the unit set up for unsolved murder cases work?

Within our ministry's General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses, we set up a department that looks only at these crimes and files. We took the unsolved files from the courts, around 640 of them.

We use new technology. Look, the way evidence was obtained in a murder committed 20 years ago is very different from how evidence can be obtained with today's technology: forensic medicine, cross-referencing phone records with base stations, genetic analysis. These can now be done very quickly and in a more up-to-date way.

I always say this: however deep a crime is buried in darkness, one day it will surely come to light. This shows the strength of the state. We are also looking at the Uğur Mumcu file.

What evidence has been found in the Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu investigation?

At that time FETÖ had unfortunately infiltrated all our state institutions, every capillary of the state. From the broad perspective we have now, we have concluded that this was an organisational act carried out on an organisational instruction from FETÖ.

To put it concretely in terms of evidence: the F-4 pilot himself, his wife's meetings with Adil Öksüz, his meeting with the organisation's secret imams in Elazığ before the day of the incident, and Adil Öksüz coming to Türkiye before the incident, attending the meeting and leaving the country a day before it happened. There is concrete evidence.

After the treacherous coup attempt of 15 July, ByLock messages came to light. Those messages refer to this incident; the F-4 pilot's wife's fingerprints were found in Adil Öksüz's house; and there are phone and base station records showing that she met Adil Öksüz. There is a lot of evidence and many indications. It is a process run entirely by the independent judiciary.

Where does the inquiry into the death of intelligence officer Kaşif Kozinoğlu stand?

We are trying to establish what happened in Kaşif Kozinoğlu's death in prison in 2011. At the time his death was described as a heart attack. His body was exhumed, examinations are continuing and we are waiting for the results from the Forensic Medicine Institute.

There is an almost identical incident in the TV series Kurtlar Vadisi. It was shown in the series before Kozinoğlu died, and two days later Kozinoğlu lost his life. The scenes match; this is suspicious. The power cut in the prison is also in the series. The screenwriters were heard as people with knowledge of the matter.

Indefinite alimony and street gangs

When will the indefinite alimony bill come to parliament?

Before parliament went into recess, we had prepared work, particularly on indefinite alimony. Parliament has reopened, and we will submit the package on this to parliament.

It is truly unfair; being married for one day and receiving alimony for life... Our judges will be able to decide according to the circumstances: they can award indefinite alimony, or they can set a time limit.

What is being done against the new generation of criminal organisations?

We need to break up the financial networks of the criminal organisations we call street gangs. They were using children under 18. We have seized the assets of around 8,000 people. Our operations are continuing with determination.