Turkish authorities have detained 17 doctors in a series of coordinated raids across 10 provinces on allegations of ties to the faith-based Gülen movement, Turkish media reported.
The detentions were part of an investigation led by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office that targeted medical professionals suspected of links to a Gülen-affiliated graduate study retreat used to prepare for the country’s medical specialization exam, known as TUS.
The accusations against the suspects include contacting senior members of the movement via pay phone, depositing money in the now-defunct, Gülen-linked Bank Asya and holding leadership roles within the Gülen movement’s alleged network in the military.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations revealed in December 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan as well as some members of his family and inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a 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 an abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The so-called “payphone investigations” are based on call records. The prosecutors allege that a member of the Gülen movement used a single payphone to call all his contacts consecutively. Based on that assumption, when an alleged member of the movement is found in call records, it is assumed that other numbers called right before or after that call also belong to people with Gülen links. The authorities do not possess the content of the calls in question. The supposition of guilt is solely based on the order of the calls made from the phone.
Following the failed coup, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, and more than 24,000 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
Moreover, more than 21,000 healthcare professionals were dismissed from their positions in both public and private institutions, according to a report by the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF).
Since the coup attempt, more than 705,172 people have been investigated on terrorism related charges due to their alleged links to the movement. There are at least 13,251 people in prison who are being held in pretrial detention or convicted of terrorism charges in Gülen-linked trials.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
