Turkey: Warrants out for 87 FETO suspects

By Savas Guler, Serdar Acil, Cankut Tasdan, Emrah Yasar, Hanife Sevinc

ANKARA/KONYA/ESKİSEHIR/ISTANBUL, Turkey (AA) - Turkish prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 87 suspects over alleged links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup, security sources said on Tuesday.

Prosecutors in the capital Ankara ordered the arrest of 20 suspects -- 9 of them active military officers -- accused of communicating with FETO members through an organizational communication line, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Police raids were launched simultaneously across Turkey, including in Istanbul and Ankara, to apprehend the suspects, the sources added.

In operations based in the central Konya province, arrest warrants were issued for 50 suspects in the military force across 18 provinces, according to a statement by the local head prosecutor’s office.

Separately, 4 suspects were detained in the central Eskisehir province over alleged links to FETO, security sources said.

Some 11 former military doctors were arrested in Istanbul, with police seeking six more. They were accused of preparing false medical reports for applicants to a military high school.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah 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.

*Writing by Havva Kara Aydin