ANKARA, June 27. /TASS/. Turkish police officers have detained 361 people on suspicion of having ties to the FETO organization, which attempted a coup in 2016 and is outlawed in the country, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
"We caught a total of 361 suspects in the course of operations conducted against the FETO terrorist organization. The operations covered 46 provinces of the country, taking place over the last two weeks. These individuals were on the wanted list for carrying out activities within the military, clandestine, financial, and educational structures of FETO, for facilitating communication within the organization, for spreading propaganda on social media, and cheating on exams [for admission to civil service]," the interior minister wrote on his X social media page.
Some of the detained were found to be users of the ByLock mobile app, an encrypted messaging service the organization actively uses for private correspondence. Several individuals on the run from the law were caught. Police operations and raids were carried out across Turkey, including in Ankara, Antalya, Istanbul, Izmir, Konya, Mersin, and Trabzon.
On July 15-16, 2016, a group of military officers and civilian conspirators attempted a coup in Turkey. The two-day standoff resulted in more than 250 deaths and 2,200 injuries. The Turkish authorities repeatedly stated that FETO supporters would be prosecuted until the last of them was brought to justice.