Turkish military boards ‘strategic target’ of FETO

The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind last year's defeated coup in Turkey, attempted to inflict the biggest harm on Turkish military, according to the national defense minister Thursday.

Addressing a graduation ceremony at the National Defense University in Istanbul, Nurettin Canikli said the military's education boards in Turkey were a "strategic target" of FETO.

"As it has been revealed clearly, Turkish General Staff and our military education boards are primary institutions that these traitors [members of FETO] tried to inflict the biggest harm on and where they have caused the most destruction," Canikli said.

He said 29 out of 33 personnel, who worked between 2006 and 2016 for the Turkish military academy, including battalion and regiment commanders, as well as deans, were dismissed from their positions.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured in Turkey.

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.