Ankara police on Thursday detained 65 staff members at one of the country’s highest courts, the Council of State, in an investigation into the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt.
Detention warrants were issued for 80 members of the staff, but only 65 of them have been detained so far, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt that killed over 240 people and wounded a thousand others on July 15. Immediately after the putsch, the government along with the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement without credible evidence.
Some 82,000 people have been purged from state bodies, nearly 40,000 detained and 20,000 arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees include journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, governors and even a comedian. (Turkey Purge)