UPDATE - Fugitive senior FETO member brought to Turkey

UPDATES DECK, ADDS MORE ARRESTS, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Jeyhun Aliyev, Kemal Ozdemir and Atakan Citlak

ANKARA/ERZINCAN/GIRESUN, Turkey (AA) - A senior fugitive member of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, was captured in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and brought to Turkey early on Thursday.

Ahmet Yigit, a "covert imam" of FETO, who infiltrated the Turkish security forces, was brought to the country in a joint intelligence operation with the TRNC, Turkey's National Intelligence Organization said in a statement.

Wanted for being a member of an armed terror organization, Yigit was accused of being a so-called manager in the covert structure of FETO in Turkey's police force, as well as being in charge of FETO-affiliated police officers working in the southern province of Hatay and of using ByLock, the terror group's encrypted smartphone messaging app.

Separately, 13 more FETO suspects -- including teachers, lawyers and public servants -- were arrested in a series of simultaneous operations conducted across 11 provinces including the eastern Erzincan, where it was based.

Another FETO suspect, a fugitive ex-major identified by the initials F.K., who was dismissed from the Naval Forces Command over exam irregularities, was arrested in a house where he was hiding in Turkey's Black Sea province of Giresun.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of 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.