ISTANBUL

Turkey nabbed 19 people, including 13 members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), while they were trying to slip out of Turkey, the National Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

The suspects were arrested during an attempt to cross into Greece, the ministry said on Twitter.

They were caught by troops in the northwestern Edirne province near the Turkey-Greece border, it added.

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

Ankara 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.