Turkish authorities detained 65 soldiers and police officers on Friday in the latest wave of arrests targeting individuals accused of ties to the faith-based Gülen movement, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Turkish Minute reported.
The detentions are part of a sweeping crackdown that has continued for nearly a decade against followers of Fethullah Gülen, a US-based Islamic scholar who died in October 2024. While the Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement of orchestrating a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, Gülen and his supporters have strongly denied any involvement in the attempted putsch or any association with terrorist activity.
According to Anadolu, the latest detentions include 56 active-duty members of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) across the air force, land forces, navy and gendarmerie, along with nine police officers. The operation, coordinated from İstanbul, was carried out across 36 provinces.
Once praised by Turkish leaders for its contributions to education, social welfare and interfaith dialogue, the Gülen movement has been labeled a “terrorist organization” by the Turkish government since May 2016, a designation not recognized by the United States, the European Union or other major international bodies.
The movement’s followers, also known as Hizmet (Service) supporters, say they have been unfairly targeted in a campaign of political persecution aimed at silencing dissent and consolidating power. The post-coup purge has seen hundreds of thousands investigated and tens of thousands imprisoned on terrorism-related charges widely viewed as politically motivated.
Ahead of the coup attempt’s eighth anniversary last July, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said that more than 705,000 people had been investigated since 2016 over alleged Gülen ties. As of July 2023, at least 13,251 individuals were reported to be either in pretrial detention or serving prison sentences for “terrorism” linked to the movement.
These figures are thought to have increased over the past 10 months since the operations targeting Gülen followers continue unabated. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and several government ministers said there would be no “slackening” in the fight against the movement following the cleric’s death at 83.
Rights groups and international observers have repeatedly criticized the breadth of the crackdown, which has resulted in the dismissal of around 130,000 public servants and 24,000 members of the military, including high-ranking officers.
In a November 2022 statement, then-defense minister Hulusi Akar confirmed that 24,706 military personnel had been expelled from the TSK due to alleged affiliation with the movement.
