Turkish Gov’t detained 699 people over alleged links to Gülen movement in a week

At least 699 people were detained as part of Turkish government’s massive post-coup witch hunt campaign targeting alleged members of the Gülen movement over the past week. In a written statement on Monday, the Turkish  Interior Ministry has announced that 669 people were rounded up in operations targeting the alleged members of Gülen movement between December 4-11, 2017.

Morover, the statement has said that Turkish security units have started investigations about 715 social media account which alleged propagating on the behalf of “terror organisations” and legal processes have been launched for 172 of them.

Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempton July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratic 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, 2016. Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.

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