Turkey arrests 39 FETO-linked terror suspects

By Muhammed Enes Can

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish police on Saturday arrested 39 terror suspects for their alleged links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, a security source said.

Two operations were conducted to uncover the terror group's “current structuring among university students”.

The prosecutors in Istanbul and National Intelligence Organization’s Istanbul branch uncovered activities of FETO-linked student formations from 2019 to 2020, and launched operations based on the obtained information.

The security forces conducted the first operation on Nov. 13 in seven cities and arrested 28 suspects.

Five of the arrested suspects benefited from the effective repentance law after confessing to their crimes, according to a judicial source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second operation was conducted earlier Saturday and 11 additional suspects, who had been identified from the testimony of other suspects, were arrested.

Many digital materials and organizational documents were seized by the police.

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

Turkey 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.

* Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara