Savas Guler and Halil Demir
24 December 2019•Update: 24 December 2019
KONYA / ISTANBUL, Turkey
Turkish prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 30 suspects on Tuesday over links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup, security sources said.
Prosecutors in the central Konya province said 23 of the suspects were on duty soldiers.
The suspects were accused of allegedly serving as FETO's "covert imams" -- senior members of the terror group -- said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
They were sought as part of a probe into FETO's clandestine network in the Turkish Armed Forces.
Police conducted Konya-centered simultaneous operations across 23 provinces.
Separately, police arrested 34 people for their alleged links to the FETO terror group.
Arrest warrants were issued for 54 sergeants in the Turkish Land Forces, including eight active-duty soldiers, as part of a probe into the terror group's infiltration of the Turkish Land Forces, according to the prosecutors in Istanbul.
In Istanbul-centered simultaneous operations across 16 provinces, 34 suspects were arrested.
The arrests came on charges of using ByLock, the terror group’s encrypted smartphone messaging app and having communicated with the terror group members via pay phone.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Turkey 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 Gozde Bayar
