Authorities issued detention warrants for 20 suspects linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) Tuesday. Police launched operations in four provinces against the suspects being investigated by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Ankara.
Suspects were part of “mahrem” (secret) network of the terrorist group, which was behind the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. They were members of a cell of FETÖ members in the public sector. Eleven of the suspects were still serving in the public sector, though their jobs or the public agencies they worked for were not disclosed. Others were already expelled on suspicion of links to FETÖ.
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that suspects were in contact with “civilian imams,” a name given to the terrorist group’s handlers for its infiltrators in the public sector, from law enforcement to the military.
Their links were discovered through the secret meetings they held after contacting each other through public payphones, a method commonly employed by the terrorist group to avoid detection.
Since December 2013, when the terrorist group emerged as the perpetrator of two coup attempts disguised as graft probes, FETÖ has been regarded as a security threat. Prosecutors say that the group's infiltrators in law enforcement, the judiciary, bureaucracy and the military had waged a long-running campaign to topple the government. The group is also implicated in a string of cases related to its alleged plots to imprison its critics, money laundering, fraud and forgery.
As its activities face heightened scrutiny following multiple attempts to seize power, FETÖ apparently strove to hide its fugitive followers, according to its former followers. A former member who testified to prosecutors has said that the number of the group's "gaybubet houses" increased from 75 to 560 across Türkiye. Authorities believe that number might be even higher.
FETÖ has been under more intense scrutiny since the July 15, 2016 coup attempt its infiltrators in the army carried out. The Ministry of National Defense announced last year that 24,387 members of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) were sacked since the coup attempt for possible ties to the group, while administrative inquiries are underway for 781 others.
