A total of 5,279 people have been detained, of whom 3,079 were arrested, as part of investigations into a July 15 failed coup attempt, in Istanbul alone.
Efforts are under way to detain another 435 suspects.
In a press statement issued on Saturday, the Istanbul Police Department shared the recent tally in the post-coup bid crackdown.
Of the 5,279 detained in Istanbul, 3,017 are military personnel, 692 civil servants, 432 judges and prosecutors, 93 police officers, 147 academics, 80 journalists, 86 businesspeople and 13 are governors, deputy governors or district governors. Meanwhile, police also detained 719 people from other occupational groups in Istanbul, the statement said.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement. Despite Gülen and the movement having denied the accusation, Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government launched a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Thousands of people have been purged from state bodies, over 41,000 detained and more than 22,000 arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees included journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, businessmen, governors and even a comedian. (Turkey Purge)