Turkey has taken action to freeze the long-term assets of the Fetullah Gülen Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) and struck a major blow to it by blocking the sale of its properties overnight. The Environment Ministry's efforts to block the sale of the organization's assets revealed that Gülen's followers in Turkey have acquired 62,317 real estate properties by using funds, granted to the FETÖ.
A total of 4,548 items belonging to schools, universities, dormitories and flats, have been placed in the state's inventory list. 2,381 items has been handed over to the public treasury, while the remaining 2,167 items have been handed over to the General Directorate for Foundations.
Officials say the assets they have gained is worth billions of TL. It is unclear whether or not they have had any other property that still remained undiscovered. But, the number of properties, handed over to the public bodies, is expected to rise, while the FETÖ case has gone into more depth.
As part of the ongoing investigation, the Finance Ministry discovered that infamous criminals, close to the Gülen-led terror organization, already owned 6,619 real estate properties, while the competent judicial authority said 49,228 properties are owned by FETÖ members.
Scrutinizing the outlawed group's last bid to deed an asset over a third person, authorities found that companies to which the state appointed trustees had already sold 6,470 suspicious units of real estate before the appointment of the trustee. By doing so, the government has prevented any further attempt to transfer of any property owned by FETÖ-linked business groups.
The move to block the sales of the immovable properties comes after the endeavors by the Environment Ministry's officials. They worked until the morning hours to complete the blocking operations overnight, when the government issued the first decree in lines with the state of emergency.
