Turkish authorities have detained 23 people in three separate operations over alleged ties to the faith-based Gülen movement, Turkish media reported.
The operations involved 15 people detained in Kocaeli province, six in the northwestern province of Edirne and two near the Greek border in the same province. Nine of the 15 people detained in Kocaeli were later jailed pending trial, while six were released under judicial supervision.
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.
In the Kocaeli case, the TR724 news website reported on Sunday that police had detained 15 people during house raids on June 23 as part of an investigation into alleged Gülen links. The report said the detainees were connected to educational institutions in the İzmit, Gölcük and Başiskele districts and were accused of engaging in activities that included providing humanitarian aid to other members of the movement and possessing books written by Fetullah Gülen.
Ten educational institutions were raided as part of the investigation. Police seized digital materials, money, documents related to educational institutions and religious publications, the report said.
In a separate case in Edirne, state broadcaster TRT Haber reported on Saturday that police detained six people on the Keşan-İpsala road.
Police stopped a vehicle driven by a person identified only by the initials İ.D. The six passengers comprised three people whose cases on Gülen-related membership charges were reportedly pending before an appeals court, one dismissed gendarmerie sergeant and two dismissed public officials who were wanted on similar charges.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency (OHAL) that remained in effect until July 19, 2018. During this period, the government carried out a purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight by issuing a number of government decrees, known as KHKs. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as 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.
TRT Haber reported another case in Edirne’s Uzunköprü district, where authorities said two people facing prison sentences for membership in the Gülen movement were caught near the village of Gemici while allegedly trying to cross into Greece. The report said both had been sentenced to more than six years in prison and were incarcerated after processing.
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.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
