Official figures show a total of 330 suspects linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) were apprehended as they tried to cross into the European Union from the northwestern European province of Edirne in 2025.
Edirne has borders with both Greece and Bulgaria. Greece, in particular, is preferred both by irregular migrants and fugitives seeking to reach the EU. From Greece, suspects usually travel to Germany, where they seek asylum.
When Türkiye stepped up its crackdown on FETÖ after the latter’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt, the group’s members fleeing prosecution tried to sneak into Europe via Edirne. Authorities are already on alert due to the high number of migrants using the route and increased border patrols. Since July 15, 2016, authorities captured some 4,500 suspects trying to flee Türkiye via Edirne, including those accompanying irregular migrants or members of other terrorist groups such as the PKK.
Among suspects caught in Edirne were FETÖ-linked soldiers, judges, prosecutors, teachers, police officers and academics who were about to be tried on charges of membership of a terrorist group.
Halil Kumcu, a soldier who abducted gendarmerie commander Galip Mendi during the 2016 coup attempt, was among those captured in Edirne by border patrol, about one year after the coup bid. Y.Y., who led a FETÖ network in Colombia, a former colonel in the Turkish navy and a niece of FETÖ’s ringleader Fetullah Gülen were among those captured in Edirne.
Türkiye has targeted FETÖ’s active members and sleeper cells nonstop, and its influence has been much reduced since 2016. However, the group maintains a vast network, including infiltrators suspected to be still operating within Turkish institutions.
FETÖ backers in army ranks and civil institutions have disguised their loyalty, as operations and investigations have indicated since the 2016 coup attempt. FETÖ is also implicated in a string of cases related to its alleged plots to imprison its critics, money laundering, fraud and forgery.
The terrorist group faces operations almost daily as investigators still try to unravel their massive network of infiltrators everywhere.
Those apprehended are mostly low-ranking members of the group, as high-ranking members managed to flee the country before and immediately after the coup attempt.
Still, security forces occasionally capture key figures of the group who managed to remain in hiding.
