Some countries infiltrated by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) have been late to take steps against the group's members, Turkey's Foreign Minister said on Thursday.
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was hosted by the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute where he attended a talk on “Turkish Foreign Policy in An Age of Uncertainty" as part of an official visit.
Answering questions, the minister described FETÖ members as “terrorists" who were behind Turkey's defeated coup attempt of July 15. He also said Estonian intelligence had identified the group's danger as early as 2013.
At least 241 people were martyred and nearly 2,200 injured in the failed coup, which Turkey said was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, the FETÖ leader in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.
“They ran tanks over the people, they bombed the people, they bombed the Turkish Parliament, they bombed the Presidential Palace and they bombed the people on the bridges.
“They used any weapon, helicopters, tanks, to kill the people -- so these [people] are the terrorists," Cavusoglu said.
Cavusoglu said FETÖ had always hidden its aims: “They captured all the state institutions, they have infiltrated -- that is how they did it in Turkey. They infiltrated the military, the police, the judiciary, my ministry."
The minister also touched on continuing investigations and the large number of FETÖ suspects arrested or suspended from state institutions.
“I had to suspend 20 percent of career diplomats because their solidarity is to this sick man living in Pennsylvania," he said.
Cavusoglu said Estonia shared an intelligence report in 2013 which said FETÖ was a dangerous network.
“We did not know they had a hidden agenda; we did not know that they had such ambitious. But in 2013, Estonian intelligence prepared a report explaining how dangerous they were, even before the attempted coup," he said.
