Timeline Gulen movement/FETÖ July 2019

09-Sep-2020

January	February	March	April
May	June	July	Sept-October
November	December

1-10 July

Date:*

9 June:

Detention warrants issued for over 260 soldiers over FETÖ links

Prosecutors in Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul and Kocaeli issued arrest warrants for at least 260 suspects on Tuesday in a new round of crackdowns against the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). In operations targeting the group's military infiltrators, 28 among the wanted were detained while a manhunt was underway to capture the other suspects.

FETÖ is accused of orchestrating the July 15, 2016 coup attempt that

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9 July:

Former top judge sentenced over FETÖ links

"We will try you too anyway," Hüseyin Güngör Babacan had told Supreme Court judges in an earlier hearing. Babacan, charged with being a member of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison yesterday by the judges he threatened. The judges ruled out a reduction in his sentence after his threat.

Babacan was a former member of the Supreme Court before he was dismissed from duty and arrested following a coup attempt by FETÖ on July 15, 2016.

He was among hundreds expelled from judiciary posts after investigations found their links to the terrorist group. Babacan rejected charges that his promotion to the Supreme Court upon was upon the instruction of FETÖ, which retained infiltrators in high places in the judiciary before the coup attempt.

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10 June:

33 sentenced to life for FETÖ's 2016 coup attempt

Turkish court on Wednesday gave eight suspects aggravated life sentences and 25 others life in prison for their actions at a military school during the 2016 defeated coup carried out by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). The hearing was attended by the 53 defendants and their lawyers at the Ankara 19th High Criminal Court.

Isa Sancaklı, Fatih Çubukçu, Özkan Gürkol, Semih İlhan, Abdülkadir Çiçek, Enes Daşçı, Resul Doğan and Yavuz Ali Üçler were given aggravated life sentences on the charges of violating the constitutional order in the coup attempt at the Etimesgut Armed Forces School in Ankara, Turkey's capital.

Former Brig. Gen. Ahmet Bican Kırker, who had been previously sentenced to aggravated life in prison for violating the constitution, was sentenced to another life sentence for "deliberate killing" and 16 years for injuring a Turkish citizen, Nejmettin Utuş.

Other defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 15 years on lesser charges for their involvement in the coup attempt. Col. Sefa Alkan, the school's commander at the time, was acquitted of all charges.

Former Col. Süleyman Karaca, accused of the coup attempt at the Gendarmerie General Command, was acquitted of the charges of "obstruction of the exercise of political rights," "deliberate killing" and "attempting to deliberately kill."

Meanwhile, Turkish prosecutors, yesterday issued arrest warrants for 28 active-duty military personnel for their alleged links to FETÖ, according to judicial sources.

The suspects are being sought as part of a probe into FETÖ infiltration of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Earlier Tuesday, over 200 soldiers in Istanbul and the Aegean İzmir province were arrested for their alleged ties to the terror group.

* The date the source published the article.

11-20 July

Date:*

13 July:

25 suspects arrested for links to FETÖ in new crackdown

Turkey on Friday arrested 25 people for suspected links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the group behind the 2016 coup attempt.

Prosecutors in Ankara issued arrest warrants for a lieutenant and 48 sergeants who were found to have periodically and successively communicated with FETÖ's "covert imams" or senior operatives via pay phones. The operations in 22 provinces have so far resulted in the arrest of 25 of the suspects. The suspects include one retired, 46 on-duty and two dismissed soldiers.

17 July:

35 arrested in operations against FETÖ military infiltrators

Police arrested 35 suspects in an operation yesterday against the Gülenist Terror Group's (FETÖ) military infiltrators. Prosecutors in the capital Ankara ordered arrest warrants for 48 suspects, all active-duty members of the Turkish Air Force, and a manhunt was underway to capture the other suspects. Operations continue in Ankara and 16 other cities.

Authorities said the suspects' links to the terrorist group were discovered in an investigation into their contact with each other via public payphones, a common method employed by FETÖ suspects seeking to avoid detection. The suspects were all noncommissioned officers. Read the full arrticle

18 July:

FETÖ putschists in airport takeover sentenced to life

A court in Istanbul handed down life sentences and lighter prison terms to 159 defendants involved in the coup attempt by military infiltrators of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) on July 15, 2016. Defendants were accused of taking over Atatürk Airport, the city's main aviation hub, during the coup that was foiled thanks to strong public resistance. They were also involved in the killing of two people who resisted the attempt.

In the final hearing of the trial that started in April 2018, the court in Silivri, a massive prison-courthouse complex housing the hundreds of coup suspects, handed down aggravated life sentences to 10 defendants on charges of violating the constitutional order. Some 43 others were given life sentences on the same charges. Read the full article

18 July:

FETÖ leader's nephews get 12 years in prison

Two nephews of Fetullah Gülen, the fugitive leader of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) were sentenced to 12 years in prison each for membership in a terrorist group yesterday.

The 29th High Criminal Court in the capital Ankara handed down sentences to Şamil and Tavus Bin Keysan Gülen who rejected the allegations.

Şamil Gülen was accused of serving as "military imam" of FETÖ, a term used to describe the group's handlers for its military infiltrators. He claimed his phone contacts with military officers linked to FETÖ was because of his job as an employee of a telecoms company in charge of military phone lines. Tavus Bin Keysan Gülen also denied his phone contacts with FETÖ members, blaming his father for the phone calls. Read the full article

* The date the source published the article

21-31 July

Date:*

21 June:

48 suspects arrested over FETÖ links

Turkish authorities arrested 48 people on Friday for their suspected links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

In the western city of İzmir, prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 52 noncommissioned officers of the Turkish Air Force for their alleged links to FETÖ. The suspects were also accused of using ByLock, an encrypted messaging app developed and used exclusively by the terrorist group. Twenty other suspects were captured in operations in 12 cities, while a manhunt was underway to capture the others.

Security sources said one of the suspects had ties to Adil Öksüz and Kemal Batmaz. Adil Öksüz, originally a lecturer of theology, is accused of planning the coup attempt with the Peace at Home Council made up of FETÖ-linked generals and other high-ranking officers. He is currently on the Interior Ministry's Most Wanted list, with a TL 4 million bounty on his head, for tips leading to his capture.

Öksüz was first detained just outside Akıncı Air Base, a military base in the capital Ankara after the coup attempt was foiled. The base was sort of a command center for the putschists with warplanes taking off from there striking strategic locations. However, hours after his detention, a court controversially ordered his release with judicial control. He was last seen in Sakarya, the northwestern city where he taught at a university, before his disappearance.

Months of manhunts across Turkey failed to catch him and the authorities concluded that he fled abroad. Referred to as FETÖ's "black box" for his intricate ties to senior cadres and prominent role in the coup attempt, Öksüz reportedly was the Air Force "imam" or the handler for the terrorist group. Kemal Batmaz, who, like Öksüz, was captured at Akıncı base, remains jailed for his role in the coup attempt, as one of FETÖ's senior civilian members executing the coup attempt.

Batmaz, whose interactions with putschists at Akıncı base was captured on security camera footage, has denied his role in the coup attempt and claimed he had no links to FETÖ. However, he was sentenced to 19 days in solitary confinement for terror propaganda on Friday after he was caught handing notes in a hearing to fellow defendants. Batmaz was trying to smuggle the note, which was addressed to Fetullah Gülen, the leader of the terrorist group; the note asked him to pray for Batmaz, out of prison with the assistance of fellow coup attempt suspects, the authorities said.

Separately, Istanbul prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 68 suspects accused of using ByLock, and 28 were arrested when Daily Sabah went to print, according to security sources. A probe into ByLock started prior to the 2016 coup attempt. However, they gained significance after the attempt. Authorities had deciphered messages revealing secret correspondents pointing to an imminent coup in operations after the coup bid. The Interior Ministry recently announced that 4,676 new ByLock users were detected in the investigation that already identified more than 95,000 users.

FETÖ is accused of orchestrating the July 15, 2016 coup attempt through its infiltrators in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). A total of 251 people were killed and nearly 2,200 others were injured when putschists tried to seize power. Turkey detained or arrested tens of thousands of people following the coup attempt for their links to the terrorist group

23 July:

Detention warrants issued for 47 military officers over FETÖ links

Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday issued detention warrants for 47 suspects affiliated with Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) as part of a probe into the terror group's infiltration into the Turkish army.

Following the warrants, anti-terror units raided houses of the suspects across 24 provinces and arrested 31 of them. A search operation to arrest the remaining suspects continues. The suspects include on-duty colonels, lieutenants and sergeants and retired sergeants.

* The date the source published the article

Turkey orders detention of 2,073 Gülen followers in July

According to Turkey’s deputy interior minister, İsmail Çataklı 2,073 suspects were detained in July as part of a post-coup crackdown targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding a failed coup on July 15, 2016 and labels it a “terrorist organization,” although the movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

In all counterterrorism investigations in July, Turkish police took 2,940 suspects into custody, 561 of whom were arrested by a court. Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government launched a massive crackdown on followers of the movement under the pretext of an anti-coup fight as a result of which some 140,000 people were removed from state jobs while over half a million have been investigated on allegations of terrorism.

Depositing money to a Gülen-linked bank, making a donation to a Gülen-affiliated aid organization or sending one’s child to a Gülen school are all considered criminal acts and evidence of membership in a terrorist organization by Turkish judicial authorities.