Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained seven people on accusations of providing financial assistance to the families of individuals jailed or dismissed from their jobs over alleged ties to the faith-based Gülen movement, the TR724 news website reported.
The detentions were carried out in the provinces of Sakarya, Ankara, Kocaeli and Aydın. Three of the detainees were arrested by a court, while the other four were released under judicial supervision.
Authorities accused the suspects of distributing financial aid sent by Gülen movement supporters abroad to the families of people jailed or removed from their jobs due to allegations of links to the movement.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement 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.
Among those detained were people who had previously been dismissed from public service by emergency decrees as well as relatives of inmates convicted on charges related to alleged Gülen movement links.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency that remained in effect until July 19, 2018. During this period the government carried out a purge on the pretext of an anti-coup fight by issuing a number of decree-laws. Over 130,000 public servants were removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by those decrees, subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
According to the latest figures from the Justice Ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted of 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 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.
