A Turkish court on Friday ordered the arrest of 54 of 70 people detained last week in coordinated raids across four provinces as part of an ongoing crackdown on the faith-based Gülen movement, the state-run TRT Haber reported.
The individuals were taken into custody on February 17 in İstanbul, Kayseri, Adana and Mersin as part of an investigation launched by the Kayseri Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The court released the remaining 16 detainees under judicial supervision pending further proceedings.
Authorities accused the detainees of participating in religious gatherings and engaging in alleged “restructuring” activities of the movement. During the raids police officers seized religious books, digital materials and bank cards issued by the now-defunct Bank Asya, a lender affiliated with the movement.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting 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.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan began to target the movement’s members. He designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016 and intensified the crackdown on it following an abortive putsch in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
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.
