Turkey nabs 41 illegally crossing into Syria, Greece

A couple ride a motorcycle past Russian and US military vehicles in the northeastern Syrian town of al-Malikiyah (Derik) at the border with Turkey, on June 3, 2020 [DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images]

Turkish security authorities nabbed 41 people as they were attempting to cross into Syria and Greece illegally, the National Defense Ministry said on Sunday, Anadolu Agency reported.

The ministry said in a written statement that among them were two people affiliated with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, and a member of a radical terror group, who was hunted internationally with red notice.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 251 people were martyred and 2,734 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

Turkey considers the PKK to be a terrorist organisation.

READ: Kurdistan Regional Government blames PKK for Erbil bomb

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