Turkey sets $86M+ bounty on fugitive FETO terrorists

By Cemil Murat Budak and Tanju Ozkaya

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey on Wednesday announced a bounty of 675 million Turkish liras ($86.4 million) for the capture of 339 fugitives suspected of being members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in the country.

The Interior Ministry's wanted list contains 42 FETO members on red notice, 23 in blue, 17 in green, 48 in orange and 209 in gray, including both civilians and former military personnel who led the July 15 coup attempt.

Turkey’s wanted list is divided into five color-coded categories, with red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange and gray.

Among those in the red category are FETO leader Fetullah Gulen, as well as key member of the terror group Adil Oksuz who led the coup attempt from the Akinci Base near the capital Ankara. Other most-wanted fugitives include members of FETO's so-called advisory council, for a total bounty of 420 million Turkish liras ($53.7 million).

Meanwhile, the total bounty for those in the blue category is 69 million liras ($8.8 million), while 34 million liras ($4.3 million) are on the heads of fugitives on green notice, 48 million liras ($6.1 million) on those on orange and 104 million liras ($13.3 million) on those on gray.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated a defeated coup on July 15, 2016 which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Turkey 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 Dilan Pamuk in Ankara