The İzmir Chief Prosecutor’s Office has issued detention warrants for 51 people due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement on Friday.
Police detained 23 of 51 who were allegedly linked with Gülen movement members in Turkish military and police, during operations in 19 provinces. In similar developments, detention warrants were issued on Thursday for a total of 165 people including staff members of two ministries and military across Turkey.
In a Kocaeli-based probe targeting the alleged members of the Gülen movement in 13 provinces, Kocaeli Chief Prosecutor’s Office has issued detention warrants for 53 military officers including 23 who are still on their active duties on Friday. 21 suspects were detained by police in the same day in Kocaeli, İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Gaziantep, Elazığ, Yozgat, Samsun, Hakkari, Malatya, Kayseri, Muğla and Giresun provinces.
Meanwhile, a couple and their two children were detained by border military forces in a village near the Turkish-Greek border allegedly as preparing to flee form Turkey to Greece. It was reported that both man and the women are teachers who were dismissed from duties by a government decree under the rule of emergency declared in the aftermath of a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016, in Malatya province over their alleged links to the Gülen movement.
The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that 998 people have been detained in one week due to alleged links to the Gülen movement.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkish 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’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. Turkish government has also suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants after the coup attempt. (SCF with turkishminute.com)
