Turkey: Arrest warrants out for 195 FETO-linked suspects

By Savas Guler, Murat Kaya, Serdar Acil and Zafer Fatih Beyaz

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for 195 suspects across Turkey for their links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup.

In simultaneous operations across 21 provinces based in Konya, central Anatolia, arrest warrants were issued for 50 suspects, including 40 active-duty soldiers and 22 air force staff, the provincial chief prosecutor’s office said.

Meanwhile prosecutors in the capital Ankara issued arrest warrants for 92 suspects, including eight active-duty soldiers.

Among them, 56 suspects were from the gendarmerie forces and 36 from the naval forces.

Separately, after Istanbul prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 53 suspects for using ByLock, an encrypted smartphone messaging app used by FETO members, 37 of them were rounded up by anti-terror security forces.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.