Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the detention of 16 people accused of distributing financial assistance to the families of individuals jailed or dismissed from their jobs over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, the ANKA News Agency reported.
Police detained 10 people during operations carried out as part of an investigation launched by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, while efforts to detain one more were ongoing and five others were believed to be abroad.
The prosecutor’s office said the suspects had previously faced prosecution on terrorism-related charges and were identified through surveillance and witness statements as continuing to support families of imprisoned Gülen followers.
The detentions are the latest in a yearslong campaign by the government against the Gülen movement, which Ankara designates as a terrorist organization.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Erdoğan’s campaign against the movement began after corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as members of his family and inner circle, which he dismissed as a conspiracy, and formally designated it as a terrorist organization in May 2016.
Following the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, President Erdoğan immediately accused the Gülen movement, inspired by the late US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, of orchestrating the plot and significantly expanded an already underway crackdown on the movement’s supporters. 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 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.
