FETO terror group serves foreign spy agencies: Report

By Cankut Tasdan and Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), a group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, works with and serves the interests of Western spy agencies around the world, especially U.S. intelligence services, according to a new report.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen serve the U.S. interests in Russia, the Balkans, Eurasia, Caucasus and the Middle East, said the Turkish Police Academy report, “FETO - An International Threat.”

The terror network also runs more than 140 U.S. charter schools funded by American taxpayers, as an operational and financial base to promote its global interests, said the report.

In addition to numerous FETO-linked businesses that pour millions of dollars into the cult's reserves across the U.S., especially its charter school network with 60,000 students provides it an annual revenue stream of $500 million that funds the terror group's operations, according to the report.

FETO uses its accumulated human and financial resources in its schools and businesses to exercise power illegally in the form of a “parallel state” or shadow governments, stated the report.

In Turkey, FETO and Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

FETO also has a considerable presence outside Turkey, including private schools that serve as a revenue stream for the terrorist group.

Since the defeated coup in 2016 dozens of countries -- including Iraq, Senegal, Afghanistan and Pakistan -- have woken up to the FETO threat and either closed down, changed ownership, or transferred FETO-affiliated schools to the Turkish Maarif Foundation.

Turkey established the foundation to take over the administration of overseas schools linked to FETO. It also establishes schools and education centers abroad.

- Infiltration

Unlike other terrorist groups, FETO exploits the concepts of inter-faith dialogue and educational/humanitarian aid as a mask to hide its status an international criminal cult, said the report.

Another operational base for FETO is Europe, according to the report, where group members increasingly seek asylum in Germany and Austria, run business groups such as the Vienna Businessmen’s Foundation (Viyana Isadamlari Dernegi) and publish Kanttekening daily, which replaced its previous media organ Zaman.

Although the terror group's school network in the Netherlands took a hit with falling enrollments after the defeated coup, FETO continued its operations by changing the schools’ names, it added.

Albania became a stronghold for FETO after the terror group provided scholarships to the children of high-level bureaucrats for years.

FETO has 33 civil society groups, 20,000 students enrolled in its schools in the Balkans alone, and publishes three magazines in the Middle East.

Any country that hosts FETO members must be wary of its infiltration of state bodies, warned the report, including the judicial and educational system, intelligence, security institutions, and the army, as well as the media.

FETO members tailor their operational tactics in every country to exploit judicial, economic and social freedom or loopholes, and once in higher and strategic positions abuse their powers, steal state secrets and sabotage the national interests of any given country, the report suggested.

FETO's terrorism is multi-faceted and transnational, so global counter-terrorism strategies are needed, stressed the Turkish Police Academy in the report.