A recent investigation revealed that the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) recruited students in Türkiye and sought to brainwash them through trips to Balkan countries.
An investigation conducted in the western province of Izmir led to raids in nine safe houses of the group earlier this month. After about six months of surveillance, police carried out operations in Izmir and the provinces of Ankara, Aydın, Balıkesir, Kocaeli and Denizli. Forty-two suspects were detained and 27 among them were remanded in custody on June 17. The operation focused on FETÖ’s “education network” found that the students were lured into the group’s secret houses for brainwashing and were taken to some Balkan countries for “intense education,” a name given by the group for training for new recruits.
For decades, the terrorist group relied on an international network of schools and prep schools across Türkiye to trick the youth into joining their movement. The youth later helped infiltrate state institutions, from courts and law enforcement to the military. On July 15, 2016, FETÖ’s military infiltrators tried to seize power. The attempt ultimately failed due to unprecedented public resistance.
The investigation in Izmir, based on evidence and confessions of suspects, showed that students accommodated at safe houses were picked on the advice of FETÖ members who personally knew the prospective recruits. Youth whose family members had no past ties to the group were primarily picked. Before and after the coup attempt, thousands of FETÖ members were questioned, detained and arrested for involvement in crimes ranging from illegal wiretapping to participation in the coup attempt and fraud in public exams (an important element of infiltration into public agencies). FETÖ members conducted “interviews” with potential recruits via social media platforms, and none of the recruits knew each other before their recruitment.
The investigation also revealed that FETÖ members organized “touristic trips” to the Balkan countries, but in reality, they were attempts to win the youth and have them engaged in a brainwashing session. The trips were arranged in secrecy, and instead of mass flights, students often traveled separately on different dates. In the Balkans, they were welcomed by fugitive FETÖ members and accommodated at safe houses of the group.
Statements of suspects showed FETÖ’s safe houses in Türkiye also served as centers to deliver cash to members of the group. FETÖ members regularly delivered cash to these houses to be distributed to other FETÖ members who were released from prison earlier, to ensure their continued loyalty to the group. At times, safe houses were occupied by fugitive members of the group before their escape abroad.
The police investigation found that the terrorist group continued its practice of recording the information on potential recruits. Similar investigations in the past years have found massive databases covering everything about the ethnicity of the group’s members to the “degree of their loyalty” to FETÖ. The safe house investigation unearthed lists compiled by FETÖ members on prospective recruits, with some described as “people not fit for duty.”
