ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkish security forces have arrested five suspects with alleged links to the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup attempt, security sources say.
The suspects, including women, were rounded up in the Edirne province near Turkey’s Greek border while trying to illegally cross to Greece, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.
Some of them were accused of using the terror group’s encrypted messaging app ByLock, the sources added.
FETO is accused of orchestrating the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
Gulen has denounced the "despicable putsch” and reiterated that he had no role in it.
"Accusations against me related to the coup attempt are baseless and politically-motivated slanders,” he said in a statement.
The 77-year-old cleric has also called on Ankara to end its "witch hunt” of his followers, a move he says is aimed at "weeding out anyone it deems disloyal to President Erdogan and his regime.”
Turkish officials have frequently called on their U.S. counterparts to extradite Gulen, but their demands have not been taken heed of.
Turkey, which remains in a state of emergency since the coup, has been engaged in suppressing the media and opposition groups suspected to have played a role in the failed coup.
Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in Turkey on suspicion of having links to Gulen and the failed coup. More than 110,000 others, including military staff, civil servants and journalists, have been sacked or suspended from work over the same accusations.