Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 166 suspects in four separate investigations against the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) on Tuesday. The investigations, all except for one conducted by the Chief Prosecutor's Office in the Turkish capital Ankara, seek the arrest of the group's secret members linked to infiltrators in the army or those involved in other crimes.
The biggest operation was against the so-called "secret imams" or the terrorist group's handlers for infiltrators. Arrest warrants were issued for 132 suspects accused of serving as handlers for infiltrators in the Gendarme General Command of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). The suspects' identities were uncovered as a result of joint work of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and police. Among the wanted suspects were two "public sector employees" who are still on duty, 74 civil servants who were expelled from the public sector earlier on suspicion of FETÖ links and 56 others working in the private sector. Counterterrorism police launched operations in 50 provinces to capture the suspects. 45 suspects were captured so far.
In another operation, police sought to capture 11 suspects accused of involvement in stealing questions and answers for a 2006 exam for the promotion of police officers and supplying them to officers linked to the group. The wanted suspects include both those who supplied secret FETÖ members with questions and answers, and police officers who rose to the rank of deputy inspector by passing the exam. Operations were underway in nine provinces to hunt down the suspects. Ten suspects were captured in operations so far, while one remains at large and is believed to have fled abroad earlier.
A third investigation sought the arrests of 15 suspects who were part of a secret network of FETÖ in the health sector. Four of them were on active duty in the health care sector while others were dismissed earlier from public health care jobs for suspected links to the terrorist group. Suspects were identified through their use of Bylock, an encrypted messaging app developed and exclusively used by the members of the terrorist group. Authorities had evidence on their links to other members of FETÖ, including senior figures, and some suspects had worked in now-defunct companies associated with FETÖ, according to media outlets.
In the central province of Konya, investigators ordered arrests of 14 suspects linked to military infiltrators of the terrorist group. Eight suspects were detained so far in operations in Konya and eight other provinces, while operations were underway to arrest the others. Suspects include former police officers, engineers and civil servants.
The terrorist group, already involved in a long list of wrongdoings from using its secret members to orchestrate corrupted trials to attempt to imprison public officials, faced more scrutiny after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, its bloodiest bid to seize power. After the attempt was quelled, thousands of suspects linked to FETÖ were detained or arrested, while the majority of them who had infiltrated into the public sector were dismissed from their jobs. But investigations and operations continue to this day as they uncover more and more previously undetected infiltrators of FETÖ. Most are carried out based on information supplied by members of the terrorist group who were caught in earlier operations.