Turkiye intelligence captures Gulenist fugitive member in Tajikistan

Turkish intelligence services have captured a wanted member of the Gulenist organisation from Tajikistan, in the latest case of catching fugitive members from abroad.

According to state-run Turkish media outlets that cited anonymous security sources, Koray Vural was arrested in Tajikistan and brought back to Turkiye this week, making him the latest suspected member of the group which Ankara accuses of orchestrating the attempted 2016 coup.

Vural had reportedly gone to Tajikistan under the instructions of the Gulenist organisation for the purpose of organising its activities in the country and in the Central Asia region. He is reported to have often visited Pennsylvania in the United States, where the organisation is based in, and had received instructions from its leader Fethullah Gulen himself.

The alleged member was on the orange category of the Turkish Interior Ministry’s colour-coded list of wanted terrorists, which is ranked from red as the most wanted, followed by blue, green, orange, and grey.

Vural then recently planned to flee Tajikistan after another Gulenist member, Emsal Koc, was captured in the country – where he lived for almost three decades – in July and brought to Turkiye.

READ: Turkiye police arrest Gulen’s niece