December 13, 2017•Update: December 13, 2017
By Seyit Ahmet Eksik
TRABZON, Turkey
Turkish police on Wednesday arrested 142 suspects for their links to Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind last year’s defeated coup attempt, security officials said.
22 soldiers were arrested in simultaneous operations launched by the police in northeastern province of Trabzon that spread to 16 other provinces.
Another 50 people, including soldiers and civil servants, were arrested in southern Antalya province.
The arrest came after Antalya’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued arrest warrants for 65 suspects as part of probe into the terrorist group.
In Turkey's central province of Konya, police arrested 31 people including soldiers.
In a separate operation in Aksaray, Konya and Ankara provinces, police arrested 9 people, including lawyers and businesspeople, for their alleged links to FETO.
Another 13 people, including 4 women, were arrested from Adana and Adiyaman provinces. They were accused of using FETO’s encrypted smartphone messaging app ByLock.
In western province of Usak, the police arrested 17 people, including 2 women, during a simultaneous operation in the city, for their alleged links to the FETO.
Some of the suspects were accused of using ByLock.
According to Turkish authorities, ByLock was a means of communication among members of FETO terror network before and during the last year's defeated coup attempt.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the July 15 defeated coup attempt, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 others wounded.
The group is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
*Turan Kazak from Aksaray, Suleyman Elcin from Antalya and Savas Guler from Konya, Sonek Kilinc from Usak provinces in Turkey contributed to the story.
