Turkey on Tuesday arrested 15 people suspected of having links to the movement of US-based Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen, referred to as the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) by Ankara, local media reported, citing judicial sources
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th June, 2019) Turkey on Tuesday arrested 15 people suspected of having links to the movement of US-based Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen, referred to as the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) by Ankara, local media reported, citing judicial sources.
Those 15 detainees were found to have communicated with FETO imams by payphone in Turkey's Konya province, according to the Anadolu news agency.
Prosecutors have issued a total of 128 arrest warrants for FETO suspects allegedly engaged in the terrorist organization's network within the Turkish military, the media outlet stated, adding that as many as 48 of them are on-duty officers.
Turkish security forces carried out operations in 30 provinces as part of the probe, Anadolu specified.
Ankara accuses FETO of having orchestrated a coup attempt on July 15, 2016. Following the short-lived rebellion, thousands were arrested � among them state and military personnel, civil activists, journalists and teachers � while tens of thousands more have been dismissed or suspended over their suspected links to the group since then. Fetullah Gullen, who lives in exile in the United States, has denied the accusations against him.
