Over 100 FETO-linked suspects arrested across Turkey

By Burcu Arik

ISTANBUL (AA) - Around 100 suspected members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind last year’s defeated coup in Turkey, were arrested on Wednesday, according to security officials.

The police arrested 59 suspects, including 26 women, in simultaneous raids conducted in 29 provinces, said an official who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.

Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office earlier issued arrest warrants for 171 suspects, who are former academics or staff members at the FETO-affiliated Fatih University in Istanbul, which was closed with an emergency decree after the botched coup attempt.

The suspects were all users of the notorious ByLock app, an encrypted smartphone messaging app used by FETO members before and during the defeated coup attempt.

In southern province of Antalya, at least 10 suspected members of the group were arrested during an early morning operation, another official said.

Doctors, academicians and teachers were among the arrested suspects, the official added.

In another operation in eastern Igdir province, four suspected financiers of the FETO group were arrested.

In southern province of Osmaniye, police carried out an operation targeting "absence houses," a name given to hideouts of secret FETO members, detaining a total of 16 people, Osmaniye Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

Security forces also apprehended four people including businessmen in southeastern Gaziantep province, as part of the investigation into the terror group.

Eleven suspects, including nine on-duty soldiers, were detained in an operation centered in Black Sea province of Zonguldak and spread to over six provinces including Izmir, Bursa, and Ankara.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen are accused of having orchestrated the defeated coup, which left 250 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.

* Leyla Ataman Koyuncuoglu and Suleyman Elcin from Antalya, Ferdi Akilli from Zonguldak, Zuhal Kocalar from Gaziantep, Huseyin Yildiz from Igdir, Erdinc Aksoy from Osmaniye and Halil Demir from Istanbul contributed to this report.