The Tekirdağ Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has issued detention warrants for a total of 110 military officers as part of an investigation against the faith-based Gülen movement.
Police teams began searching locations in 20 provinces and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) to detain 108 military officers and two military students.
According to the state-run Anatolia News Agency, the individuals for whom detention warrants were issued are 67 non-commissioned officers, 16 lieutenants, 18 first lieutenants, three captains, three majors, one senior colonel and two military students
Since a failed coup attempt on July 15, the Turkish government has been carrying a massive crackdown on the alleged followers of the Gülen movement.
The military coup attempt killed over 240 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement despite the lack of any evidence to that effect.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
According to a statement from Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ on May 6, 149,833 people have been investigated and 48,636 have been jailed as part of an investigation targeting the Gülen movement since the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey. (turkishminute.com) May 9, 2017
