Turkey's Bahceli lauds intelligence operation in Kosovo

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli has praised the operation of Turkish intelligence agency in Kosovo that resulted in six alleged senior members of Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) being brought back to Turkey.

In cooperation with Kosovar intelligence, Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) arrested six men, who were said to be in charge of getting FETO members out of Turkey to go to Europe and the U.S., alongside their activities in the Balkans.

The group, brought back to Turkey by a private plane, is made up of Cihan Ozkan, Kahraman Demirez, Hasan Huseyin Gunakan, Mustafa Erdem, Osman Karakaya, and Yusuf Karabina, all wanted in Turkey as FETO fugitives.

"This is what the [Turkish] state should do," Bahceli said during his party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.

He added: "There are so many [FETO] traitors running wild in the U.S. and European countries."

Bahceli called for similarly bringing back FETO's U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen.

"If the traitor priest in Pennsylvania would be held at night by a brave Turkish youth while throwing a hood over his head, and then if he could be brought to Turkish justice while being brought with a plane or ship over the ocean, in that case all project owners’ masks would be dropped," Bahceli said.

"In that way, national conscience will take a deep breath."

He reiterated that FETO, which orchestrated the July 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, was a "project terror group".

On March 28, National Security Council defined the terror organizations FETO, YPG/PYD/PKK and Daesh as "project terror groups" that targets Turkey's national security.

FETO orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 in Turkey, which left 250 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.