Mustafa Said Muğla, the main caretaker for his disabled mother, was detained on Monday in Turkey’s western Manisa province for alleged links to the Gülen movement, Bold Medya reported.
Muğla was taken into custody along with 14 other people in Manisa as part of an investigation into the so-called “restructuring of the Gülen movement” launched by the Manisa Public Prosecutor’s Office on Monday for alleged membership in the movement.
Muğla’s sister, who lives abroad, said her brother became the main caregiver for their mother after their father, Nusret Muğla, died in prison. “My mother is paralyzed and unable to take care of herself without my brother; she can’t even eat on her own. His absence will be devastating for her. We don’t know what to do, we are left without hope,” she said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, of masterminding.
A total of 319,587 people have been detained and 99,962 arrested in operations against supporters of the Gülen movement since the coup attempt, Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said in November.
