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 44 people were arrested, while 93 others were detained on Monday, according to Turkish news agencies.
Police carried out the operations in 19 provinces across Turkey. With most of the arrestees being teachers, those arrested over the past day also included police officers, association personnel and a former president of Turkey’s Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBİTAK).
Among those detained are small business owners, doctors, teachers and police officers.
Meanwhile, a total of 12,801 police officers from across Turkey and 121 schoolteachers in Şanlıurfa province were suspended over alleged links to the Gülen movement.
The victims of Monday’s operations carried out as part of the massive purge have been added to the already-enormous 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 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.
More than 100,000 people have been purged from state bodies, nearly 43,000 detained and 24,000 arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees included journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, governors and even a comedian.
Critics argue that lists of Gülen sympathizers were drawn up prior to the coup attempt.