The Greek Coast Guard confirmed on Tuesday that 17 Turkish nationals, including six children, have requested asylum in Greece after they snuck into the island group of Oinousses from Turkey's Aegean coast. The fugitives were civil servants and judicial staff according to the Greek media, who also reported that the group was fleeing prosecution following a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
FETÖ is known for its widespread infiltration in the public sector and judiciary and authorities have sought to weed out its infiltrators over the past four years.
Greece saw a surge in the number of Turkish asylum seekers last year after it admitted eight putschist officers, who fled Turkey in a military helicopter that they hijacked after the coup attempt failed.
Elsewhere, customs officers at a port in the northwestern city of Kocaeli seized assets belonging to Ahmet Nurettin Uğur, a FETÖ-linked businessman at large who was one of the partners at Kaynak Holding, a business conglomerate that used to finance the terrorist group. Officials said the assets were discovered in a U.S.-bound shipping container that was registered in the name of another suspect identified as E.E. They found check and account books bearing the name of Uğur, as well as account records, several laptop computers, CDs, memory cards, cellphones, a phone book, a passport and a one dollar bill.
According to prosecutors, FETÖ members carry one-dollar bills in order to recognize each other. Letters preceding the serial numbers on the bills refer to the rank of the bearer within the terrorist group. Kaynak Holding, whose assets were seized in 2016 by authorities, was the main financier of FETÖ's illegal activities. A Kaynak executive is in prison on charges of conspiring to seize power on behalf of FETÖ with the aid of the group's infiltrators in the military.
