European Interest

Turkey detains hundreds in Gulen crackdown

Flickr/Giuseppe Milo/CC BY 2.0

More than 600 people were arrested by police in Turkey on February 12 for alleged links to the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016.

As reported by the state news agency Anadolu, Ankara’s public prosecutor confirmed that officials had sent, to authorities in 75 provinces, the names of 1,112 people under investigation over suspected ties to Gulen and his movement.

In a separate report, FRANCE 24 noted that the operation, related to alleged cheating in police examinations, showed authorities were not letting up on their crackdown two-and-a-half years after rogue soldiers used warplanes, helicopters and tanks in a bid to seize power.

More than 250 people were killed in the failed putsch, in which Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has denied involvement. Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.

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