A Turkish court on Friday ordered the arrest of four people shortly after their release in a trial on allegations that they provided financial assistance to families of individuals jailed or dismissed from their jobs over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
According to the state-run TRT Haber, the İstanbul 15th High Criminal Court issued the rearrest order for Zeki Doruk, Yalçın Uçar, Kahraman Bora and Cengiz Güneş following an appeal filed by the prosecutor. The decision came after the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court had ruled to release the four pending trial.
Police detained 27 people, including Doruk, Uçar, Bora and Güneş in July 2025 as part of an investigation spanning nine provinces.
Doruk, the owner of two İstanbul-based retail brands, Hakmar and Tatbak, and 14 others are charged with “membership in an armed terrorist organization” and “violating the law on terrorism financing,” facing prison sentences of up to more than 28 years.
Doruk is also accused of employing individuals with alleged Gülen movement ties and transferring money sent from abroad to movement members. Güneş, reportedly acting on Doruk’s orders, allegedly traveled across Turkey to distribute financial aid to former civil servants dismissed by emergency decrees and their families.
The remaining 12 defendants are charged with “membership in an armed terrorist organization” and face sentences of up to 15 years.
As part of the investigation, prosecutors have also sought the confiscation of 22 companies under counterterrorism legislation, alleging that they were used to funnel money to individuals accused of links to the Gülen movement.
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 a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a failed 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.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency 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. 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.
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.
