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Turkish police nab 20 FETÖ suspects in ops

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New investigations into the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) led to arrests on Thursday in Istanbul and other provinces.

At least 20 people have been arrested over suspected links to FETÖ, the group behind the 2016 coup bid in Türkiye, security forces said in a statement. The arrests were made after prosecutors in Istanbul issued warrants for 21 people who were convicted of being members of a terrorist group. Security forces arrested a total of 20 suspects in simultaneous operations across Istanbul, while efforts are underway to nab the remaining suspect, it added. Meanwhile, three suspected FETÖ members were nabbed while trying to illegally cross to Greece from Türkiye, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said on Thursday. It added that the suspects were captured by border troops.

Turkish authorities have stepped up investigations into the wrongdoings of FETÖ in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt by military infiltrators of the terrorist group that killed 251 people and injured nearly 2,200 others. Following the failed putsch bid, members of the terrorist group sought to escape prosecution by fleeing abroad or hiding in the group’s safe houses across Türkiye. Still, tens of thousands of people were detained or arrested by the security forces since 2016.

The struggle against FETÖ has netted thousands of members since the coup attempt. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) are at the center of the struggle. A spokesperson for the Defense Ministry said in June that 24,387 members of the TSK were sacked since the coup attempt for possible ties to the group while administrative inquiries were underway for 781 others.

The terrorist group, which had infiltrators in law enforcement, the judiciary and the bureaucracy, still has backers in the army ranks, though they have managed to disguise their loyalty, as operations and investigations since the coup attempt indicated. According to an investigation by Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office that was made public in December 2020, the terrorist group began infiltrating the TSK more than four decades ago. Based on a report prepared by the Gendarmerie General Command, 22 of 239 students who graduated from military schools between the 1970s and 1990s were charged with involvement in the 2016 coup attempt, while 58 others were investigated for being FETÖ members following the failed putsch bid. While the students discharged from military schools could not continue carrying out their missions in the army, they still aided FETÖ’s attempts by offering insight into the military’s workings, playing an “active role” in establishing the hidden network inside the TSK, the report says.

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Source: Daily Sabah

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