Turkey nabs 7 FETO suspects trying to flee to Greece

EDIRNE, Turkey

Seven suspected members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, were arrested while trying to escape to Greece from Turkey, security sources said on Monday.

The suspects were nabbed in a restricted military zone in the Meric district of the northwestern Edirne province, near the Turkey-Greece border, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The suspects – identified only by their initials F.D., I.S., D.A., R.S., R.Y., M.K., and M.Y. – have been taken to the district’s gendarmerie station for questioning, the sources added.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 2016 in Turkey, in which 251 people were killed and 2,734 injured.

Ankara 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.