Thirty-three suspects allegedly within the Gülenist Terror Group’s (FETÖ) secret structure in the police were detained, the Ankara public prosecutor’s office announced Monday.
According to a statement, a detention warrant was issued for 38 members of the armed terrorist organization FETÖ/PDY, which infiltrated the General Directorate of Security in line with the investigation conducted by the Terrorist Crimes Investigation Bureau.
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.
In simultaneous operations based in Ankara, the 33 suspects were detained, 20 of whom were working in public institutions. Efforts to capture the remaining suspects who could not be found at their addresses are continuing, the statement said.
The suspects were said to work to gain new members while monitoring the loyalty of new FETÖ members.
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 of 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.
Turkish security sources also say the group is in turmoil after the death of its leader, Fetullah Gülen, in October last year.