Turkish gov’t detains 930 people in post-coup witch hunt campaign targeting Gülen movement over past week

A total of 930 people were detained across Turkey over the past week as part of Turkish government’s massive post-coup witch hunt campaign targeting alleged followers of the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding the controversial July 15 coup attempt.

In a written statement on Monday, Turkish Interior Ministry has announced that 930 people were detained over their alleged links to the movement between June 12-19. The ministry has also said that another 49 were detained on charges of terrorist propaganda on social media. Those detained over links to the movement also included.

Turkey survived a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed over 240 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.

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 participants of the Gülen movement in jails.

At least 161,751 people were detained or investigated and 50,334 people were arrested in Turkey in the framework of the Turkish government’s massive post-coup witch hunt campaign targeting alleged members of the Gülen movement since the controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016, according to statistics reported by state-run Anadolu news agency by basing on information taken from the officials from Turkey’s Justice Minsitry on June 13. (SCF with turkeypurge.com) June 20, 2017

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