Turkish authorities on Monday detained four people in Ankara over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, the state-run TRT Haber reported.
The detentions were carried out by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and Ankara police as part of an investigation by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office amid an ongoing crackdown on the movement.
The detainees are accused of going into hiding to avoid arrest over alleged links to the Gülen movement or helping others sought by the authorities over similar accusations to hide.
The investigation is continuing, according to TRT Haber. Authorities did not disclose the suspects’ identities or provide details about the evidence against them.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted the faith-based Gülen movement, inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who died in 2024, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated Erdoğan as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and 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 coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
According to the latest figures from the justice ministry, more than 127,000 people have been convicted of alleged links to the movement since 2016, with 10,485 still in prison and legal proceedings ongoing against 83,404 individuals.
