Turkey seeks fugitives around the world

ANKARA (AA) - Around 350 people -- mostly soldiers -- are being sought by the Turkish authorities over links to the July 15 attempted coup, according to figures compiled by Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

Defense Minister Fikri Isik said Monday that 311 military personnel, including nine generals and admirals, remained at large.

Police are also seeking 49 journalists after 89 arrest warrants were issued last week. According to a judicial source, 23 suspects have been remanded in custody and the other 17 were released.

Arrest warrants for 30 former staff members at the Zaman newspaper are also outstanding while 17 ex-employees of the newspaper linked to Fetullah Gulen were detained pending trial.

U.S.-based Gulen is accused by Turkey of organizing the coup attempt through his supporters in the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO). A court in Istanbul issued a warrant for Gulen in December 2014 as part of an investigation into the parallel state he is accused of controlling in Turkey.

Gulenist suspects wanted by Turkey fit into two groups -- those sought since the coup attempt and those who were on the run before that in connection with other Gulen-linked cases such as the Fenerbache football club match-fixing case, the December 2013 inquiry into alleged corruption and the connected Selam-Tevhid probe.

Zaman daily was taken over by court-appointed executives in March. That month, an arrest warrant was issued for Ekrem Dumanli, the newspaper’s former editor, on charges of leading a terrorist organization and plotting to overthrow the government. He fled Turkey in September 2015 after he was arrested and later released.

Another Gulen-linked organization, the conglomerate Koza Ipek Holding, was raided last September in a counter-terrorism investigation against FETO. A court in Ankara said Koza Ipek had financed FETO. Chairman Akin Ipek left Turkey before the raid.

Former senior police intelligence officer Emre Uslu is another fugitive from Turkish justice. He is wanted in a parallel state inquiry presented to an Istanbul court.

The government has also requested the extradition of former prosecutors Zekeriya Oz and Celal Kara, who are believed to be in Germany, over the December 2013 corruption investigation that allegedly targeted senior political figures in a bid to overthrow the government.

Two other prosecutors involved in the case, Mehmet Yuzgec and Fikret Secen, are also wanted. Secen fled to the Netherlands in November last year.

Other alleged FETO members, who are accused of being behind a false investigation into match-fixing, are Serif Ali Tekalan, the former rector of Fatih University in Istanbul, which was closed down following the coup attempt, as well as former senior police officers Osman Karakus, Mehmet Likoglu and Mutlu Ekizoglu.

Their arrest warrants were issued in April by an Istanbul court. Police raids on their homes revealed they had all fled.

Hakan Sukur, a former deputy for the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, is wanted and living in the U.S. In June, proceedings began against him for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mustafa Yesil, the former president of the Journalists and Writers Federation, is also wanted and thought to be in the U.S. ​

*Hatice Kesgin contributed to this report.