CIA agents use ex-British military HQ for Turkey coup plan

A former headquarter of the British military had been used by CIA agents for meeting on the night of the failed deadly coup attempt in Turkey.

Dozens of CIA agents led by Henri Barkey, an expert on Turkey's affairs and former CIA agent, had convened at the Splendid Palace Hotel in the Princes Islands in the Sea of Marmara, some twenty minutes from Istanbul on the night of July 15.

At least 13 of the attendees were CIA agents, and 21 were Turkish nationals who have close links with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), led by U.S.-based cult leader Fetullah Gülen.

FETÖ had planned and staged the coup attempt on July 15, killing 241 people and injuring more than 2,200 others.

Gülen has been living in Pennsylvania for more than 16 years under CIA protection after fleeing Turkey in 1999.

The luxury hotel in the Princes Islands had also been used by the British military during the battle of Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire in WWI.

James le Mesurrier, a British military official and founder of the private security firm Mayday Rescue, had visited Istanbul with his family and stayed in the hotel for several days before the failed coup, according to ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party lawmaker Orhan Dligöz.

He stated the owners of the hotel is a Jewish-Turkish family related to Pınar Arıkan Sinkaya, a former research assistant of Akdeniz University.

Sinkaya, who had been fired after the coup attempt for having links with FETÖ, had also been among the Turkish delegates of the meeting.

Deligöz said that security authorities had been continuing an investigation on the secret meeting, but surprisingly they had no CCTV cameras and had not yet set up a camera system despite repeated warnings from the authority.