Turkey detains 85 military personnel over Gulen ties

Some 85 Turkish military personnel were detained by police in countrywide raids over alleged links to the group blamed for the 2016 failed coup, state media reported on Friday.

Prosecutors in Ankara issued arrest warrants for 110 active duty personnel in the air force, state-run news agency Anadolu said, as part of a probe into followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Police launched operations in 16 provinces including Ankara while those detained in other cities would be taken to the Turkish capital. 

Five of those sought by police were pilots while three were colonels, the agency added.

Turkey claims Gulen ordered the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 15, 2016 but he strongly denies the charges.

More than 77,000 people including military personnel, teachers and judges have been arrested over suspected links to Gulen under the two-year state of emergency imposed five days after the coup bid. The government ended the emergency this July.

Western allies have expressed concern over the scale of the crackdown which saw over 140,000 people suspended or sacked from the public sector.

In the face of stringent criticism, Ankara has insisted the raids are necessary to remove the "virus" that is the Gulen movement's infiltration of key Turkish institutions.

The latests arrests came after the United States called for the immediate release of a NASA scientist arrested in southern Turkey for alleged links to Gulen.

Serkan Golge, 36, an American citizen, was arrested at the time of the failed coup.

The US State Department said in a written statement on Thursday that it will continue to follow the case against Golge, insisting it "lacks credible evidence," but welcomed a decision to reduce his sentence.

A court in southern Turkey on Wednesday cut Golge's prison term from seven and a half years to five years and overturned his conviction for membership in a terror organisation.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, denies this and insists his movement is peaceful, and promotes moderate Islam and secular education.

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