The Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office has ordered the detention of eight people on accusations of distributing financial assistance sent from abroad to the families of individuals imprisoned or dismissed from their jobs over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, the state-run TRT Haber reported.
Two of those detained were reportedly former public servants who were dismissed by emergency decrees issued in the aftermath of a coup attempt in 2016.
A criminal magistrate of the peace ordered the arrest of one of the detainees, while legal proceedings are ongoing for the remaining seven, who are being held in custody.
The detentions are the latest in a yearslong campaign by the government against the Gülen movement, which authorities designate as a terrorist organization.
Erdoğan’s campaign against the movement began after corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as members of his family and inner circle, which he dismissed as a conspiracy, and formally designated it as a terrorist organization in May 2016.
Following the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan immediately accused the Gülen movement, inspired by the late US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, of orchestrating the plot and significantly expanded an already underway crackdown on the movement’s supporters. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Five days after the coup attempt, the Erdoğan government declared a state of emergency and carried out a purge on the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 130,000 public servants were removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by those decrees, subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
According to the latest figures from the Justice Ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted of 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 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.
