A huge cleansing of Turkey’s state and other institutions is continuing as people from all walks of life find themselves being hunted down and taken into custody.
At least 347 people were arrested while 339 others were detained on Tuesday, according to Turkish news agencies.
Police carried out the operations in 26 provinces across Turkey. With most of the arrestees being military and police officers, those arrested over the past day also included teachers, academics, businessmen, prison guards, imams, civil servants and doctors.
Among the detainees are police officers, teachers, civil servants, military officers, academics, Education Ministry inspectors, a district mayor and a former deputy governor.
The victims of Tuesday operations carried out as part of the massive purge have been added to the already-huge group of people who have been either detained or arrested since July 15.
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 AKP government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement, inspired by US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Despite Gülen and the movement having denied the accusation and calling for an international investigation, 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.
Some 86,000 people have been purged from state bodies, nearly 41,000 detained and 22,000 arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees included journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, governors and even a comedian. (Turkey Purge)