UN department cuts ties with FETO-linked group

By Betul Yuruk

NEW YORK (AA) - A UN department on Friday cut ties with a group linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) after a request from Turkey.

The UN Department of Public Information (DPI) has ended relations with the Journalists and Writers Foundation (JWF), whose honorary president is FETO leader Fetullah Gulen.

The move came after a demand from Turkey's Permanent Mission to the UN and months after another UN agency canceled the consultative status of three groups linked to the organization.

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the six principal UN organs, came to a consensus last April after voting to terminate all affiliation with the Kimse Yok Mu Relief Foundation, the JWF and the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists.

The move has been hailed as a victory by the Turkish mission to the UN.

All three organizations were shut down in Turkey for their support for FETO following the July 15 coup attempt last summer.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the July 15, 2016, defeated coup attempt in Turkey, which martyred 250 and left nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also blames FETO for being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.