Three soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel and two noncommissioned officers, turned themselves in yesterday to the authorities, confessing their links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which is blamed for the military coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

Identified by their initials as E.K., M.A. and Ü.E., the soldiers arrived at the police directorate in the northwestern province of Kocaeli, asking for a remorse law that grants sentence reductions to terror suspects confessing their ties to FETÖ be invoked. All were stationed at a naval base in the province's Gölcük district. Officials said none were implicated earlier in any FETÖ-related case.

On Wednesday, four officers turned themselves in to the police in the capital Ankara, apparently in a new wave of "confessions" that was triggered when Burak Akın, an officer hailed as an anti-coup hero, confessed he was actually a member of the terrorist group. Akın, who was the protection officer for the Land Forces Commander during the coup attempt, told investigators that he decided to surrender in late December when he felt the authorities were closing in on him in investigations against the terrorist group.