Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT) brought six high-ranking Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) members from the Balkans to Turkey on Thursday.
Cihan Özkan, Kahraman Demirez, Hasan Hüseyin Günakan, Mustafa Erdem, Osman Karakaya and Yusuf Karabina were returned to Turkey following an operation in cooperation with Kosovar intelligence.
The six FETÖ fugitives were responsible of the terror group's activities in the Balkans and organizing the escape of other members from Turkey to the United States and Europe.
The group was brought back to Turkey by a private plane and handed to the judiciary.
Security units earlier found that Özkan allegedly managed terrorist fundraising in Balkan countries and transferred the money to the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, where Gulen has lived for decades.
Demirez, allegedly in charge of FETÖ’s youth branch in Kosovo, is said to have recruited members of the terror group in the Balkans.
Günakan was allegedly in charge of teachers working in FETÖ-linked schools in the region.
Karakaya is alleged to have played an active role in the Ergenekon case, a supposed conspiracy to overthrow the Turkish government. He is also said to have forged documents for the benefit of FETÖ, and to have gotten a plaque from Gulen for this work.
Others brought back to Turkey were said to be senior members in charge of FETÖ infiltration of various institutions and organizations in the Balkans.
FETÖ is responsible for the July 15, 2016 failed coup which martyred 249 people and injured 2,100 others.
The failed coup was organized by followers of U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, who has pursued a long-running campaign to overthrow the government through supporters within the Turkish state, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
