The agents of Turkey’s notorious National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) have reportedly located 4,600 alleged members of the Gülen movement in 110 countries around the world, with more than 80 suspected members of the movement already brought back Turkey from 18 countries as part of a “global manhunt.”
According to a report by Daily Sabah, a mouthpiece of Turkey’s Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan published in English, Turkish intelligence agents under the guise of Foreign Ministry staff are monitoring the activities of alleged members of the Gülen movement in 160 countries and their efforts to abduct them have continued non-stop.
Kosovo was among those countries that conducted a joint operation with the Turkish intelligence service, the report said, adding that six alleged executives of the Gülen movement were abducted from there in March.
It was followed by three alleged members of the movement with outstanding detention warrants who were abducted by MİT agents and brought to Turkey from Gabon in April.
The most recent example of the abduction of alleged Gülen movement members was realised last Thursday when two people were abducted by MİT agents in Azerbaijan and Ukraine and brought to Turkey.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. On December 13, 2017 the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on April 18, 2018 that the Turkish government had jailed 77,081 people between July 15, 2016 and April 11, 2018 over alleged links to the Gülen movement.
