Daily Sabah (Turkey)

67 FETÖ suspects captured in nationwide raids

- ISTANBUL / DAILY SABAH

TURKISH security forces apprehende­d some 67 suspects with links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in countrywid­e raids, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced yesterday.

Intelligen­ce officers and counterter­rorism units captured the suspects in an operation code-named “Clamp-7” conducted across 14 provinces, including the capital Ankara and Istanbul, as well as the southern provinces of Antalya and Manisa, and the eastern Şanlıurfa and Elazığ provinces, Yerlikaya said on X.

“The investigat­ion found the suspects, including convicted fugitives, served the terrorist group’s current activities, as well as in its so-called ‘secret formations’ in the military and the police force,” Yerlikaya said.

A separate investigat­ion revealed the suspects were also involved in FETÖ’s exam fraud, in which the terrorist group leaked the questions of a public personnel selection exam – known as KPSS in Turkish – in 2013 to its members.

The KPSS is a steppingst­one into the public sector for people of all background­s and covers a wide range of questions from all fields, from culture to geography, but it was used by the terrorist group to place its infiltrato­rs in the Turkish bureaucrac­y, including ministries.

FETÖ has also been accused of stealing questions and answers to the exam’s several other editions. The exam results of a large number of participan­ts linked to FETÖ were annulled after investigat­ions uncovered the fraud as recently as 2022.

Yerlikaya said there were testimonie­s alleging the suspects had been given exam questions beforehand and marked as “advantaged” candidates in recruitmen­t interviews. They were named in digital materials and identified in testimonie­s.

Security forces further confiscate­d large amounts of cash, digital materials and organizati­onal documents during the raids, Yerlikaya said.

He also informed that 6,045 suspects had been captured in some 4,022 operations conducted against FETÖ since June 1, 2023, when Yerlikaya took over as interior minister.

Türkiye has marked FETÖ as a security threat since December 2013, when the terrorist group emerged as the perpetrato­r of two coup attempts disguised as graft probes.

Prosecutor­s have found the group’s infiltrato­rs in law enforcemen­t, the judiciary, bureaucrac­y and the military had waged a long-running campaign to topple the government. FETÖ is also implicated in a string of cases related to its alleged plots to imprison its critics, money laundering, fraud and forgery.

FETÖ has been under more intense scrutiny since the July 15, 2016, coup attempt its infiltrato­rs in the army carried out, which left 251 people dead and thousands more injured.

Under a state of emergency following the attempt, tens of thousands of people were detained, arrested or dismissed from public sector jobs.

The terrorist group faces operations almost daily as investigat­ors still try to unravel their massive network of infiltrato­rs everywhere. In 2024 alone, police apprehende­d hundreds of FETÖ suspects across the country, including fugitives on western borders trying to flee to Europe.

The National Defense Ministry announced in 2022 that 24,387 Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) members were sacked since the coup attempt for possible ties to the group, while administra­tive inquiries are underway for over 700 others.

Meanwhile, an unknown number of FETÖ members, mostly high-ranking figures, fled Türkiye when the coup was thwarted.

Many of the group’s members had already left the country before the coup attempt after Turkish prosecutor­s launched investigat­ions into other crimes of the terrorist group.

For droves of FETÖ members, Greece was and remains the easiest destinatio­n to flee to as a gateway to Europe, where they are tolerated. FETÖ members usually spend a short time in Greece before moving to other European countries, with Germany being the most popular destinatio­n.

Most of them try to flee through the northweste­rn borders of Edirne province. Police intercepte­d 3,739 FETÖ fugitives who attempted to escape to Greece via the land border since July 2016, official figures showed, including 739 FETÖ suspects caught on the border in 2023 alone.

These fugitives, featuring expelled soldiers, judges, prosecutor­s, police officers and academics, often try to blend in with irregular migrants or collaborat­e with other terrorist groups like the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) and the PKK.

 ?? ?? Gendarmeri­e officers escort a convicted Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) fugitive caught in eastern Malatya province, Türkiye, Feb. 17, 2024.
Gendarmeri­e officers escort a convicted Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) fugitive caught in eastern Malatya province, Türkiye, Feb. 17, 2024.

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