Turkish authorities detained 21 people in the western province of İzmir on Friday in an investigation targeting people accused of both links to the Gülen movement and of providing humanitarian assistance to people in need, the TR724 reported.
The İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for 26 people. The remaining five were still being sought as of Friday. Elderly people were among those targeted, with footage from the raids showing an elderly man being taken into custody.
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 him 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 attempted coup or any terrorist activity.
The investigation is being conducted by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office with assistance from the regional branch of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the İzmir Provincial Gendarmerie Command’s counterterrorism unit.
Authorities said searches of the suspects’ homes resulted in the seizure of 192,000 Turkish lira (about $3,936), $2,582, 4,050 euros, 20 British pounds and 15 gold coins of various denominations.
The 21 detainees remained in gendarmerie custody Friday while their processing continued.
