18 FETÖ suspects caught in Izmir-based operation

Security forces on Tuesday arrested 18 suspects of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in operations in six provinces. The Izmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office's Terrorism and Organized Crime Investigation Bureau issued detention warrants for 24 suspects believed to be involved in training activities within the organization. Eighteen suspects were caught in simultaneous raids conducted by teams from the Provincial Police Department's Counterterrorism and Intelligence Branches, centered in Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara, Manisa, Bursa and Afyonkarahisar. Six fugitive suspects were identified as being abroad. The terrorist group orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in Türkiye, in which 252 people were killed and 2,734 were wounded. Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary. Türkiye has targeted its active members and sleeper cells nonstop, and its influence has been much reduced since 2016. However, the group maintains a vast network, including infiltrators suspected to be still operating within Turkish institutions. FETÖ backers in army ranks and civil institutions have disguised their loyalty, as operations and investigations have indicated since the 2016 coup attempt. FETÖ is also implicated in a string of cases related to its alleged plots to imprison its critics, money laundering, fraud and forgery. 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. Those apprehended were mostly low-ranking members of the group, as high-ranking members managed to flee the country before and immediately after the coup attempt. Still, security forces occasionally capture key figures of the group who managed to remain in hiding, such as Cihat Yıldız. Yıldız, accused of helping the escape of Adil Öksüz, the civilian mastermind of the 2016 coup attempt, was captured during a police check in August in Istanbul.