Turkish police raid 100 addresses in FETO swoop

By Alptekin Soykan

ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkish police raided 100 addresses across Istanbul on Thursday as part of a probe into the financing of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Speaking on condition of anonymity, security sources said the Istanbul Counter-Financial Crimes Branch Directorate simultaneously raided addresses in the Fatih, Sisli, Kagithane, Pendik and Sile districts with riot police back-up.

Police have made an undisclosed number of arrests and searches are continuing.

Thursday’s raids follow a major operation in Istanbul on Tuesday against 51 companies suspected of supporting FETO. Financial crime officers raided companies – including Akfa Holding and the A101 supermarket chain – in the city’s Uskudar and Umraniye districts. Eighty arrests were made.

A wave of detentions following the July 15 defeated coup has seen thousands of people detained across Turkey.

Senior business figures, as well as members of the military, police and judiciary have been among those targeted.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim confirmed on Wednesday over 20,000 people had been remanded in custody since the July 15 coup attempt.

During a live interview on the state-owned TRT Haber news channel, Yildirim laid out statistics indicating a wide-ranging investigation in which "40,029 people have been detained and 20,355 were arrested including police officers, soldiers, judiciary members, local administrators and civilians.”

Yildirim also said a total of 5,187 people are still remanded in custody.

So far, nearly 80,000 civil servants have been suspended from duty while just over 5,000 have been dismissed, Yildirim added.

Turkey's government has said the defeated coup, which left 240 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his FETO network.

Gulen is accused of leading a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.

*Bahattin Gonultas contributed to this report from Ankara