Turkish authorities on Wednesday captured 26 suspects linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and issued detention warrants for a dozen more as part of ongoing investigations against the terrorist group that orchestrated a defeated coup in July 2016.
The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the capital Ankara said police caught 14 suspects sheltered in the so-called “gaybubet” (“absence”) houses of FETÖ, moving around constantly to avoid detection.
The suspects included an army major, a first lieutenant and a sergeant, the prosecutor’s office said.
“Absence” houses are used as safe houses by wanted FETÖ members who often forge IDs and rarely step out to avoid capture. A former member who testified to prosecutors said that the group’s “absence” houses increased from 75 to 560 across Türkiye. Authorities believe that number might be even higher.
Police also detained 12 people in an investigation of FETÖ’s so-called “student formation” that oversaw the housing of university students linked to FETÖ in the southern Mersin province and five other cities.
Authorities found the suspects operated homes to bolster in-group loyalties, recruit fresh members, provide financial support and organize events for existing members. Phones belonging to suspects also revealed correspondence between members through FETÖ’s encrypted communication app, Bylock, where they send information and receive instructions.
Similarly, Ankara prosecutors ordered the detention of five people suspected of using ByLock.
FETÖ still has backers in army ranks and civil institutions but they managed to disguise their loyalty, as operations and investigations since the coup attempt have indicated. FETÖ is also implicated in a string of cases related to its alleged plots to imprison its critics, money laundering, fraud and forgery.
The group faced increased scrutiny following the coup attempt that killed 251 people and injured nearly 2,200 others. Tens of thousands of people were detained, arrested or dismissed from public sector jobs following the attempt under a state of emergency.
Hundreds of investigations launched after the attempt sped up the collapse of the group’s far-reaching network in the country. FETÖ was already under the spotlight following two separate attempts to overthrow the government in 2013 through its infiltrators.
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 terrorist group is also known for stealing questions and answers to promotion exams to help its members rise in the ranks in the bureaucracy, military and law enforcement, and has been subject to numerous investigations on this issue.
Ankara prosecutors on Wednesday said seven suspects are wanted in connection to the leaking of military high school entrance exams by FETÖ to its members between 2011 and 2015.
The suspects, including an active-duty police officer and a military personnel, coded the numbers of candidates close to FETÖ to help them get into the schools, prosecutors said.
Last year, Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) found that over 3,000 infiltrators of FETÖ were still active within the Turkish National Police after spending more than six years to decipher an encrypted database seized from a top FETÖ member code-named “Garson” (“Waiter”), who was behind the group’s July 2016 coup.
