Turkish authorities detained 12 people, including university students, on Wednesday over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, the state-run TRT Haber broadcaster reported.
As part of an investigation launched by the Edirne Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the police conducted operations in Edirne, İstanbul, Bursa, Bilecik and Çanakkale to detain the suspects, who include students and graduates of Trakya University.
The suspects are accused of membership in a terrorist organization for allegedly being part of what the authorities describe as the movement’s “current student structure.” Police seized their mobile phones and computers during raids on their houses.
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.
