Six individuals including businessmen who are known for their benevolence were detained in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on Friday in new wave of witch-hunt operations targeting the faith-based Gülen movement.
Detentions were carried out by police officers from the Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau of the Gaziantep Police Department after simultaneous raids on a number of addresses in the province.
As part of the investigation conducted by the Gaziantep Public Prosecutor’s Office, offices of Kimse Yok Mu aid foundation, Free Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (HÜRSİAD), Southeastern Industrialists and Businessmen’s Federation (GÜNSİAF), two factories and two companies were raided and police seized many documents and computers in those places.
The detained individuals were taken to Gazintep Police Department for interrogation.
Individuals and organizations that are thought to be tied to the faith-based Gülen movement have been facing immense pressure from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) since the becoming public of a corruption investigation in late 2013.
Scores of people, including businessmen, journalists, police chiefs, teachers and even housewives, have been detained since the corruption scandal.
The AK Party government and then Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dubbed the graft probe in which Erdoğan’s inner circle was implicated as a “coup attempt” to overthrow the government and accused the Gülen movement of establishing a “parallel state or structure” within the state to overthrow his government.
Erdoğan infamously promised to take every measure to eliminate the “parallel structure,” including launching a “witch hunt.”