Turkish police have captured over 500 suspects linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in nationwide raids, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Tuesday.
In coordination with chief public prosecutors and the intelligence directorate, police in 62 provinces detained 544 suspects planned to be placed as FETÖ infiltrators in various state institutions, Yerlikaya said via X, formerly Twitter.
The suspects were directed to public personnel selection exams like the KPSS by FETÖ handlers who aimed to ensure the candidates would win the exam by coding the levels of the suspects’ loyalty to the terrorist organization, Yerlikaya informed.
Some of the suspects were named as regular users in case documents of ByLock, FETÖ’s encrypted communication app, and also communicated with their handlers through payphones.
The raids spanned from the capital Ankara to southern Antalya, northern Zonguldak, Erzurum, western Çanakkale, Bursa to eastern Gaziantep and Mardin provinces, Yerlikaya added.
Separately on Tuesday, Ankara's Chief Public Prosecutor's Office said it was looking to detain some 24 suspects linked to the terrorist group on charges of FETÖ's so-called “secret public formation” based on witness testimonies, sequential search and the group’s reference/rating lists.
Ankara anti-smuggling police are pursuing the suspects, the prosecutors said.
Last year, Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) found that over 3,000 infiltrators of FETÖ were still active within the Turkish National Police after spending more than six years to decipher an encrypted database seized from a top FETÖ member codenamed “Garson” ("Waiter") who was behind the group’s July 2016 coup.
New statements of “Garson,” an eyewitness in the case against FETÖ since surrendering in 2017, revealed the group maintained its surveillance on 320,000 members of the police for 16 years, up until its notorious first attempt to topple the government in December 2013, according to a report in the Turkish newspaper Sabah.
Encrypted lists of police officers show each was assigned a code based on their links to FETÖ or their opposition to the group’s infiltration. The lists, created by FETÖ handlers, rated the officers in terms of their “loyalty.” They also helped other FETÖ members pinpoint which infiltrators should be “aided” in promotion in their jobs.
The terrorist group is known for stealing questions and answers to promotion exams to help its members rise in the ranks in the bureaucracy, military and law enforcement, and has been subject to numerous investigations on this issue.
FETÖ still has backers in army ranks and civil institutions but they managed to disguise their loyalty, as operations and investigations since the coup attempt have indicated. FETÖ is also implicated in a string of cases related to its alleged plots to imprison its critics, money laundering, fraud and forgery.
The group faced increased scrutiny following the coup attempt that killed 251 people and injured nearly 2,200 others. Tens of thousands of people were detained, arrested or dismissed from public sector jobs following the attempt under a state of emergency.
Hundreds of investigations launched after the attempt sped up the collapse of the group’s far-reaching network in the country. FETÖ was already under the spotlight following two separate attempts to overthrow the government in 2013 through its infiltrators.
The terrorist group faces operations almost daily as investigators still try to unravel their massive network of infiltrators everywhere. In 2024 alone, police apprehended hundreds of FETÖ suspects across the country, including fugitives on western borders trying to flee to Europe.
The National Defense Ministry announced in 2022 that 24,387 Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) members were sacked since the coup attempt for possible ties to the group, while administrative inquiries are underway for over 700 others.
