Turkish authorities have detained 10 more people in the ongoing crackdown on the faith-based Gülen movement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Police conducted operations across five provinces: Mersin, Ankara, Antalya, Hatay and Çorum. The detainees were accused of engaging in activities linked to the movement, providing financial support and commemorating the death of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement and died in October at age 83.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movementsince corruption investigations revealed in 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan as well as members of his family and inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began pursuing its followers. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch in 2016, which he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
According to a statement from Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç ahead of the eighth anniversary of the coup attempt last July, a total of 705,172 people have been investigated since the failed coup on terrorism or coup-related charges due to their alleged links to the movement. Tunç said at the time that there were 13,251 people in prison in pretrial detention or convicted of terrorism in Gülen-linked trials.
These figures are thought to have increased over the past 10 months since the operations targeting Gülen followers continue unabated. Erdoğan and several government ministers said on many occasions that there would be no “slackening” in the fight against the movement following the cleric’s death at 83.
