Turkish police detain over 110 FETÖ-linked suspects

KONYA – Anadolu Agency

At least 111 people were detained on May 3 across Turkey over their suspected links to the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), the group believed to have been behind the July 2016 defeated coup, according to security sources.

In an operation based in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, the organized crime department of the police arrested 40 FETÖ suspects, including on-duty soldiers, as part of an investigation carried out by the province’s chief public prosecutor’s office.

Additionally, 14 more suspects, including on-duty soldiers, were arrested in eight different provinces, as part of a separate probe carried out by the same prosecutor’s office.

In the southern Hatay province, police held 12 FETÖ suspects in simultaneous operations that targeted “absence houses,” a label given to hideouts of secret FETÖ members, across the province.

Some of the suspects are learned to have used ByLock, an encrypted smartphone messaging app used by members of the network.

Another 12 suspects — including doctors, teachers, and students — were arrested in the eastern Elazığ-based operation, which was carried out across five provinces.

In the Mediterranean province of Antalya and the northwestern province of Kocaeli, police detained nine FETÖ-linked suspects in each province.

In the northern Tokat province, seven suspects were detained as part of an investigation into the network’s “judges and prosecutors’ house.”

In the Black Sea province of Trabzon, four FETÖ suspects were detained in simultaneous raids across the province for using the ByLock application.

In the Central Anatolian province of Niğde, police held two suspects for allegedly using ByLock, while two others were arrested in the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir on suspicion of being terror group members.

The group, also known as the Gülen network, is widely believed have orchestrated the defeated coup, which left 250 people killed and nearly 2,200 injured.