Turkish prosecutors seek army suspects over coup links

By Muhammed Enes Can and Halil Demir

ISTANBUL (AA) – An Istanbul prosecutor has issued arrest warrants for 243 Turkish military personnel over alleged links with last year’s coup attempt, judicial sources said on Wednesday.

The suspects were being sought on specific accusations they were using ByLock, a secret smartphone messaging app the Turkish government says was used by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), said judicial sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

FETO, led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, has been accused of orchestrating a failed coup attempt on 15 July 2016.

Following Wednesday’s decision, Istanbul Police Department’s Counter Terrorism units launched operations across 54 provinces and detained some of the suspects, said the sources.

In an earlier decision, the public prosecutor’s office also issued arrest warrants for 575 military personnel on the same allegations. Just over 350 of these suspects were detained by police.

The July 15 defeated coup left 248 people martyred, and around 2,200 others wounded.

Turkey's government accuses the FETO terror network of staging the coup attempt as well as being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Since the failed coup attempt, operations have been ongoing in the military, police and judiciary, as well as in state institutions across the country, to arrest suspects with alleged links to FETO.