Police detained 12 more academics from Erzincan University over their alleged links to the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a coup attempt on July 15.
Conducting operations in five provinces early Friday, police took 12 faculty members into custody.
The detainees have been added to an already high number of academics detained 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 Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
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.
The government has to date detained more than 40,000 people and arrested around 24,000 on coup charges. (Turkey Purge)