Turkish police launched a large scale operation across Turkey to detain a total of 121 former foreign ministry officials over their suspected ties to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

Counter-terrorism police squads began simultaneous raids in 30 provinces to capture the suspects who were previously dismissed, some of whom were believed to be users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app used solely by the terrorist group.

Elsewhere, the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in the central province of Konya issued arrest warrants for 70 on duty soldiers from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). The operations to capture the suspects are also underway in 31 provinces.

FETÖ, which poses as a religious charity, runs a global network of companies and schools. In 2013, its infiltrators tried to topple Turkey's government by detaining figures close to the government under the guise of an anti-graft probe.

When it failed, the group moved to seize power through its infiltrators in every rank of the army on July 15, 2016. However, this attempt failed as well after the public resisted the bid in an unprecedented move.A total of 249 people were killed and hundreds were injured in the insurrection attempt. Since then, thousands of people linked to the terrorist group have been arrested or detained, and trials on the coup attempt are still underway.

Though operations already began prior to the 2016 coup attempt, a state of emergency accelerated the process with authorities weeding out FETÖ infiltrators in every ministry.

In a related development, the education ministry decided Thursday to shut down four schools affiliated with FETÖ. Two schools in Ankara, one in southern Hatay province, and one in the western İzmir province, were among the closed institutes.