[mplewis]

As described in the other thread, this is known as the inferential mood in Turkish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferential_mood

[sedatk]

It is a tense. It can simultaneously function as a mood, that doesn't change its tense status. It changes the time aspect of a verb. I don't know how more tense you can be than that.

[bloppe]

I don't speak Turkish. How would you distinguish e.g. "I heard he went" (inferential past) vs. "I heard he will go" (inferential future)? Is there such a distinction?