A Turkish court has ordered the arrest of 35 of 72 people detained on November 17 as part of the government’s ongoing crackdown on the faith-based Gülen movement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday.
Police took 72 suspects into custody in coordinated raids across 27 provinces, including Ankara, Antalya, İstanbul and İzmir.
Eleven of those taken into custody were released by the police after agreeing to act as “informants,” while the remaining 61 were transported to the İstanbul courthouse. A criminal magistrate of peace ordered the arrest of 35 and released 26 under judicial supervision.
According to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, the individuals are accused of terrorism-related acts stemming from past employment at companies affiliated with the Gülen movement and from using encrypted messaging applications to communicate with alleged contacts in the group.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan began to target the movement’s members. He designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016 and intensified the crackdown on it following an abortive putsch in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
According to the latest figures from the Justice Ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for alleged links to the movement since 2016, with 11,085 still in prison. Legal proceedings are ongoing for over 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under active investigation nearly a decade later.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
