The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in the capital of Ankara issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for 16 suspects linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). Warrants were part of an investigation into the group’s secret network in the Turkish army’s Land Forces Command.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that suspects were found to be in contact with FETÖ’s so-called "civilian imams" or handlers for infiltrators in the army. They utilized payphones to arrange meetings with "imams," a common method employed by the terrorist group to avoid detection. Fourteen among the wanted suspects were former military personnel who were expelled from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) earlier on suspicion of affiliation with FETÖ while two others were FETÖ handlers.

The terrorist group, which had infiltrators in law enforcement, the judiciary and the bureaucracy, still has backers in the army's ranks. They managed to disguise their loyalty, as operations and investigations since a 2016 coup attempt FETÖ’s military infiltrators carried out have indicated. More than 24,000 military staff were expelled from the army since 2016 for their links to the terrorist group.

According to an investigation by Istanbul's Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which was made public in December 2020, the terrorist group began infiltrating the TSK more than four decades ago. Based on a report prepared by the Gendarmerie General Command, some 22 of 239 students who graduated from military schools during the 1970s to the 1990s were charged with involvement in the 2016 coup attempt, while 58 others were investigated for being a member of FETÖ following the failed putsch bid. While the students discharged from military schools could not continue carrying out their missions in the army, they still aided FETÖ's attempts by offering insight into the military's workings, playing an "active role" in establishing the hidden network inside the TSK, the report says.

FETÖ – led by Fetullah Gülen, who currently lives in the United States and is implicated in a long list of trials against the terrorist group – orchestrated the coup attempt with the aid of its military infiltrators and civilian members of the group who were in charge of those infiltrators.