Turkey seeks to detain 70 officers suspected of Gulen links

Prosecutors in the Turkish province of Konya issued warrants against 58 officers still on active duty as well as 12 others who were sacked from the armed forces.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab & agencies

04 January, 2018

Fethullah Gulen is accused of organising a coup attempt in the summer of 2016 [Getty]

Turkey's state-run news agency says warrants have been issued for the detention of 70 military officers suspected of links to a network led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of plotting a failed coup attempt in 2016.

Turkish state Anadolu News Agency said prosecutors in the central Turkish province of Konya issued warrants against 58 officers still on active duty as well as 12 officers who were previously sacked from the armed forces.

Police operations to detain the suspects were underway in 27 provinces, the agency reported.

Turkey declared a state of emergency and launched a massive crackdown after the coup, resulting in some 50,000 arrests and the dismissal of more than 110,000 people from state jobs, including the military.

Turkish authorities are also seeking the arrest of 68 shareholders of Bank Asya in an operation targeting the network of Gulen.

The operation, focusing on Istanbul and encompassing nine provinces, targeted "Class A" shareholders who had voting rights to determine the bank's administrative board, police said on Wednesday.

The Turkish government has held 49 of the suspects so far.

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims Gulen masterminded the 2016 attempted coup, in which more than 240 people, many of them unarmed civilians, were killed by rogue soldiers.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has denied the charges and condemned the coup and subsequent "witch hunt".

Since the failed coup, more than 50,000 people, including civil servants and security personnel, have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 suspended or dismissed from their jobs under state of emergency rule imposed and extended by Erdogan.