Authorities issued arrest warrants for 202 suspects in Turkey in a string of operations against Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) infiltrators in the military.
The Chief Prosecutor's Office in Ankara on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for 99 people over their suspected links to FETÖ, the terror group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey.
Suspects include an air commodore and 30 former pilots from the Turkish Air Force Command, accused of links to the group through FETÖ's "secret imams," handlers for military infiltrators.
Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, a brigadier general who was among the senior putschists behind the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, is among the suspects in the case. Sönmezateş, who is accused of coordinating a team of assassins assigned to kill President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the putsch attempt, has long denied his links to the group. He is already jailed and sentenced to life on several charges, while he remains a defendant in multiple coup trials that continue. The probe by Ankara prosecutors discovered Sönmezateş's contact with secret imams via payphones.
In the western city of Balıkesir, eight military officers were detained as part of a FETÖ operation against the Coast Guard, Naval Forces and Land Forces of the Turkish army. A manhunt was underway for 14 officers wanted in the same probe.
In addition, security units began another operation to arrest 71 FETÖ-linked military personnel across 16 provinces as part of a probe instigated in the northwestern province of Kocaeli.
FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
