Turkey: communication methods of FETO revealed

By Sertaç Bulur and Orhan Onur Gemici

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish security forces have published a report on the communication methods of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, security sources said Monday.

The terrorist organization uses encrypted phone lines, couriers, notes, social media, payphones, media organs and computer programs for communicating as well as direct communication, according to the report by the General Directorate of Security’s counter-terrorism department.

FETO has also acted confidentially in communication as in other fields of activity, the report said, adding couriers were considered one of the most secure communication methods.

FETO members discussed “very important issues” when directly communicating with their leader, Fetullah Gulen, the report said. Senior members of the organization in this context met with Gulen, who lives in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, to obtain instructions and inform him of their activities.

Encrypted phones were especially used in contact with its affiliated schools abroad, the report said, adding the ByLock, Eagle, Shu and Falcon apps were used for communication using the icons of apps such as Facebook, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Twitter.

Turkish security forces carried out their first operation on March 31, 2017 in northwestern Tekirdag province to arrest suspects who had communicated with covert imams of FETO using a payphone, according to the report.

Security forces have carried out 677 operations in 76 provinces since Dec. 5, 2018, arresting 3,631 suspects out of 9,352 people who were issued arrest warrants. The report also said 553 were released.

“It is vitally important for our national security to decipher this organization completely considering the fact that the militants in the form of civil servants are trying to mask themselves as if they have different lifestyles and political views out of ‘precaution’ and that the organization and its members haven’t been completely deciphered even today,” the report said.

It also said it is highly difficult to identify covert members in the Turkish Armed Forces through administrative investigations as they attach great importance to confidentiality.

The report noted that the determination of these suspects can only be revealed through judicial investigations and intelligence techniques.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of 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.

*Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur