More than 50 people have been arrested across Turkey on Tuesday for suspected links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), the group behind last year’s defeated coup, according to security officials.
Seven FETÖ suspects -- including a university student, a financial advisor and former police officers -- were arrested during simultaneous operations in the central Kayseri and northwestern Edirne provinces of Turkey.
Meanwhile, in Kayseri province, four more people were arrested after the Chief Public Prosecutors Office issued arrest warrants for 16 people.
The suspects including students and military personnel were all believed to have used an encrypted smartphone messaging app which was used by FETÖ -- ByLock.
They are suspected of having accounts at Bank Asya, a lender affiliated with FETÖ which recently declared bankruptcy.
In the northwestern Kocaeli province, police arrested another 10 suspects, who were also believed of using ByLock.
In an the eastern Elazığ province-based operation, 11 others were arrested according to another source.
In another operation targeting FETÖ’s secret military structure, 22 suspects, including on-duty soldiers, were arrested across 17 provinces.
The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
FETÖ is also behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
