Turkish courts have ordered the arrest of five people detained in two separate operations in Edirne province over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, after they were accused of attempting to leave the country, Turkish media reported.
Gendarmes detained four people on Friday who had been released under judicial supervision as part of Gülen-linked investigations and were allegedly preparing to leave the country. A court ordered the arrest of two of them, while the other two were released again under judicial supervision.
In a separate operation on Monday, gendarmes detained four more people who were also under judicial supervision in Gülen-linked investigations and were allegedly attempting to leave Turkey. A court ordered the arrest of three of them, while the fourth person accused of assisting them was released under judicial supervision.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, who died in 2024, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and later designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the attempted coup 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 active investigation nearly a decade later.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, many other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
