UPDATE - 25 FETO terror suspects arrested in Turkey

UPDATES WITH MORE ARRESTS, CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE

By Anadolu Agency Staff

KONYA / BURDUR / TOKAT / ANKARA, Turkey (AA) – Turkish police arrested 25 people over their suspected links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, security sources said on Monday.

In Turkey’s central Konya province, prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 11 suspects as part of a probe into FETO’s infiltration of the Turkish Armed Forces, said the sources, asking not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Police carried out operations across eight provinces and arrested eight of the suspects, with efforts underway to nab the remaining individuals, the sources added.

Separately, police arrested 10 suspects, including dismissed cadets, in simultaneous operations across seven provinces as part of an investigation launched by prosecutors in Turkey’s western Burdur province, another security source said.

The suspects were found to have stayed in FETO's cell houses while they were studying in Burdur, where they were preparing for the military school entrance exams.

Another six suspects – including retired, dismissed and suspended military personnel – were arrested in simultaneous operations across four provinces after prosecutors in the northern Tokat province issued arrest warrants for them, another source said.

Meanwhile, the Turkish intelligence nabbed a member of FETO abroad and brought him back to Turkey, said a security source.

It was learned that Selahaddin Gulen, who is a relative of FETO's ringleader, fled abroad with the help of the terror group's covert structure, said the source.

Gulen, who was being sought for being a member of an armed terror group, is also learned to be related to the so-called advisory committee members and senior members of the terror group.

He had escaped the country on the instructions of the terror group's ringleader.

He was brought back to Turkey in an operation conducted by the National Intelligence Organization, the source said.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and 2,734 injured.

Ankara 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.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz​​​​​​​