The history of FETÖ, whose deadliest attack took place on July 15, 2016 to kill 251 innocent people and injure over 1400 Turkish citizens, dates back over five decades. Fetullah Gülen, who formed the organization and ruled it with an iron fist until today, laid the groundwork for FETÖ in the 1960s, when he served as a preacher. Having engaged in counter-communism activities during the Cold War, Gülen formed a covert organization that, like other terrorist groups mentioned in this booklet, aimed to undo Turkey’s constitutional order. Unlike the terrorist organizations Daesh and PKK, however, FETÖ conducted its activities by infiltrating public institutions and abusing the official powers of its operatives.

As part of this strategy, which the group has systematically implemented since the 1970s, Gülen’s recruits secretly infiltrated public institutions and formed ‘sleeper cells’ within the state apparatus. FETÖ members gradually rose through the ranks of bureaucracy, facilitating the admission of fellow operatives into public service in the process. As such, by the 1980s, the group’s infiltration effort became more systematic and Fetullah Gülen came to be portrayed as a legitimate actor in the public eye.

In the wake of the Cold War’s end and the Soviet Union’s disintegration, FETÖ turned its attention to international activities. In this regard, it identified recently independent Turkic republics in Central Asia as a priority target, establishing educational institutions there to recruit new members and reproduce its infiltration strategy in other countries.

Another sign of the group’s emphasis on its international operations was Fetullah Gülen’s 1999 relocation to the United States in order to manage his terrorist organization from a luxury compound in rural Pennsylvania.

To be clear, the relocation of FETÖ’s senior leadership to the United States did not result in the mitigation of the threat against Turkey. In the 2000s, the organization’s infiltration efforts were expedited, as its operatives reached the higher levels of bureaucracy. By engaging in other illegal activities, like stealing public service entry examination questions, the group facilitated new recruits to infiltrate state institutions.

Working towards its goal of seizing control of the state apparatus from within to undermine the constitutional order, the terrorist group used to its advantage Turkey’s crackdown on the guardianship regime, which has arbitrarily suppressed the national will for decades, and the democratization process. It effectively sought to replace the dismantled guardianship elements itself. During this period, FETÖ oversaw the removal of public officials, who refused to serve Fetullah Gülen and whom the group saw as rivals of its undercover operatives, from strategically important institutions like the Turkish Armed Forces through mobbing, threats and various plots. Thus FETÖ reached the final stage of its plan to take over the state apparatus.

Turkey took its most decisive steps against the FETÖ threat under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership. During his tenure as prime minister, Erdoğan made it clear that he would not tolerate a ‘parallel state’ and emerged as a FETÖ target when his government moved to shut down so-called educational institutions that the group used to find new recruits and finance its illegal operations. From its headquarters in the United States, the organization attempted to discredit Turkey’s democratically elected government in the eyes of domestic and international audiences through a series of operations.

The Turkish people responded to this assault, which began in late 2013, by rallying behind Erdoğan’s AK Party in the March 2014 municipal elections. The public’s support helped the authorities to crack down on FETÖ’s financing, propaganda and recruitment operations and the removal of FETÖ operatives, who had infiltrated public institutions, from their posts.

Turkey took a series of legitimate steps with sound legal basis within the framework of its counter-FETÖ campaign – which the terrorist group misportrayed to international audiences as a violation of human rights and restrictions on rights and liberties. Various elements, which target Turkey for a number of reasons, conveniently bought into the organization’s allegations and reproduced them – claiming that the Republic of Turkey was conducting a ‘witch hunt’ against an organization, FETÖ, that did not exist.

The bloody coup attempt of July 15, 2016, however, established that Turkey’s security concerns were completely legitimate. FETÖ’s senior leadership, seeing that their operatives within the Turkish Armed Forces been identified and the Turkish authorities were going to relieve them of their official duty at the Supreme Military Council’s upcoming meeting the following month, perpetrated a coup attempt within its own chain of command. The perpetrators were stopped thanks to the resistance of patriots within the state and the civilian population, captured and brought to justice.

For the purpose of dismissing FETÖ operatives from the public institutions they infiltrated and of restoring state security, the Turkish Parliament declared a state of emergency in the wake of the coup attempt. The state of emergency, which was limited to public institutions and therefore had no impact on the daily lives of private citizens, expired after two years. As a result of Turkey’s decisive steps during this period, the FETÖ threat has been largely neutralized.

The Republic of Turkey continues to strive to protect its friends and allies from the FETÖ threat and to bring the organization’s senior leaders, starting with Fetullah Gülen, to justice. In this regard, FETÖ-linked educational institutions abroad are being transferred to the custody of the Maarif Foundation, which was established in 2016, and necessary steps are being taken to bring back FETÖ operatives, who are wanted, to Turkey.