Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained 15 people in Kocaeli province over alleged ties to the faith-based Gülen movement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The Kocaeli Police Department said officers raided 10 educational institutions and the homes of their administrators in three districts of Kocaeli. Two of the detainees were sought by authorities as part of ongoing investigations.
During the raids, police seized religious books, digital materials, cash and documents related to the educational institutions.
The detainees are being questioned at the Kocaeli Police Department.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, 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 coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
According to the latest figures from the Justice Ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for 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.
