Speaking at a meeting with heads of Turkish commerce at the presidential complex in Ankara, he said that the security forces continued to track FETO members inside state institutions and in the community at large.
“No doubt there is also a business side of this organization. That’s where they are perhaps the most powerful. No project can succeed without financing. We are determined to cut this bloody organization’s business connections and sources of income,” he said.
According to the Interior Ministry, almost 26,000 people have been arrested in Turkey during investigations into the coup attempt. Those arrested, as well as tens of thousands of public sector workers who have been suspended from their jobs, are suspected of having links to FETO, which the government says orchestrated the July 15 coup attempt.
Erdogan also called on citizens to report anyone suspected of being a FETO member or follower to the police.
The president said Fetullah Gulen’s books were full of inaccurate information and could not be considered as Islamic teaching books.
Fetullah Gulen’s books contain many elements that are incompatible with Islam, Erdogan said.
The president also called for reform of the judicial system.
“Turkey can no longer be governed by laws from the 1950s made after other coups,” he said.
The country accuses U.S.-based preacher Gulen of being the mastermind of the failed coup and has sent the U.S. two official requests for his extradition to face trial.
Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. since 1999 and he is also accused of leading the Fetullah Terrorist Organization.
The coup attempt left 238 martyrs in its wake and nearly 2,200 others injured
