A Turkish opposition lawmaker alleged Tuesday that dozens of university students detained in a nationwide investigation targeting an alleged network linked to the Gülen movement were being denied access to lawyers, as details emerged showing that 40 of 78 detainees were students.
According to the TR724 news website, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), said the students were not being allowed to meet with attorneys and that authorities were attempting to obtain statements without legal representation.
“Forty young female university students are in custody in Izmir,” Gergerlioğlu wrote on X. “Their education has been disrupted. On top of that, they are not being allowed to meet with their lawyers.”
The allegations have attracted attention because nearly half of those detained in Tuesday’s operation were university students, many of whom were taken into custody as final examinations were underway. Authorities said 69 of the 78 detainees were women.
The detentions took place on Tuesday in coordinated early-morning raids across 11 provinces under an investigation led by prosecutors in the western city of Izmir. The Izmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the suspects were being investigated for alleged involvement in what it described as an educational network linked to the faith-based Gülen movement
The detainees include undergraduate and graduate students. The prosecutor’s office said the investigation focused on the movement’s alleged educational activities.
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 as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a 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.
Izmir prosecutors ordered a similar operation during the university examination period last June, resulting in the detention of 42 students.
