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Turkish police captured a member of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) wanted for the 2016 attempted assassination of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the failed coup, the Interior Ministry said Saturday, nearly a decade after the attack.
The suspect was part of the FETO unit involved in the attempt to assassinate Erdogan in Marmaris on the night of the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, according to the Interior Ministry.
The ministry said B.K. was a dismissed army captain and former helicopter pilot who was wanted under an Interpol Red Notice.
The ministry said the operation was carried out through a joint effort by the intelligence branches of the Afyonkarahisar and Eskisehir provincial police departments, coordinated by the General Directorate of Security's Intelligence Department.
The operation located B.K., who was then captured by counterterrorism police in Afyonkarahisar.
Security sources said B.K. had continuously changed appearance to avoid capture and used a fake identity and was ultimately identified after his information was flagged by a facial recognition system.
He had been under surveillance for some time before being caught attempting to flee the country with a large sum of money, according to the sources.
The arrest took place during a nighttime operation at a cell house belonging to the organization in the Inaz Earthquake Housing complex in the Afyonkarahisar city center, according to security sources.
The ministry released footage of the operation showing counterterrorism police entering the building, reaching the target apartment, and apprehending B.K. in the room where he was hiding.
The footage also showed B.K. being handcuffed, escorted from the building, placed in a police vehicle, and brought to the counterterrorism branch headquarters.
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Materials seized during searches of the safe house were displayed at the Afyonkarahisar Counterterrorism Branch headquarters.
The seized items included a large amount of Turkish lira and foreign currency, gold, fake identification documents, photographs, a laptop computer, three mobile phones (one a keypad phone), and various other documents and digital materials.
The failed 2016 coup attempt, plotted and carried out by FETO under the leadership of Fetullah Gulen, killed 253 people and wounded 2,734 others.
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