Broadmeadows mosque president Ramazan Oztas said the brothers hadn’t been seen at the religious centre in up to three years. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "They had distanced themselves from the mosque community and I don't know them," he said. Ertunc was a painter whose business closed in August 2018 after operating for less than a year. The married father-of-two had apparently been injured about six months ago after falling from a ladder. Less is known about his younger brother Samed, whose Campbellfield home was also raided by police before his arrest on Tuesday morning. Parked on the property was a truck for a lawn and gardening service.

Their father, Armagan Eriklioglu, said his sons were “good men” and that while he had prayed at Ertunc’s home he vehemently denied that they had created their own mosque in the backyard. “No, no, they don't like Islamic State," Mr Eriklioglu said. "They are very quiet, they’re not wild, they’re not aggressive. We haven’t got no weapons, they [police] couldn’t find anything.” Mr Eriklioglu said Samed lived in the bungalow at the back of the house with his 84-year-old grandmother. "She's really upset and in shock," he said. He said he had spoken to his sons once on the phone about lunchtime on Tuesday after their arrests. "[They are] not too bad right now," he said.

Mr Eriklioglu said he and his sons were interested in the works of Muslim scholars, many of them Turkish. They would often watch YouTube videos together that featured lectures about the faith. "Some of [the scholars], I can't remember their names," he said. "And watching everything from Youtube, scholars, imams you know... sometimes lectures and all that, Koranic verses." He denied Ertunc had a makeshift mosque at his house, or that he had been radicalised by Islamic State. Armagan Eriklioglu, father of two men accused of plotting a terror attack in Melbourne. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

He confirmed his sons’ passports had been cancelled but said he did not know why. Mr Erikioglu said he had been watching the news of the terror raids unfold on television as police scoured his property and felt compelled to address the media waiting outside. "I wanted to come out here and say 'it’s not true'," he said. "I don’t know where they [police] got this information from." Mr Eriklioglu said his son believed Islamic State had been created by the United States. "He [Samed] always says United States builds ISIS up," he said.

Mr Eriklioglu went on to deny his son planned on crossing the border into Syria to fight for IS during a planned trip to Turkey before his passport was cancelled earlier this year. "What's he going to do in Syria?" he said. "He wanted to go to Turkey to marry." When asked about the recent Bourke Street attack and whether his sons had discussed it with him Mr Eriklioglu said "they say it’s not good at all what happened". Later in the afternoon, Mr Eriklioglu locked himself inside the house and pulled the shutters down. Another associate caught up in Tuesday’s counter-terror operations is Hanifi Halis, 21, of Greenvale.