A huge cleansing of Turkey’s state and other institutions is continuing as people from all walks of life find themselves hunted down and taken into custody.
At least 149 people were arrested, while 213 others were detained on Thursday, according to Turkish news agencies.
Police carried out the operations in at least 30 provinces across Turkey. With most of the arrestees being police officers, those arrested over the past day also included board members of suspected associations, university students, academics, hospital personnel, university staff and teachers.
Among those detained are lawyers, teachers, judges, small business owners, housewives, imams, businessmen, a military officer and many police officers.
Meanwhile, 2,400 teachers along with 184 judges and prosecutors were suspended over their alleged links to the Gülen movement, while 109 military judges were sacked on Thursday.
The victims of Thursday’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 Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah 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 75,000 detained and 34,000 arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees include journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, governors, housewives and even a comedian.
Critics argue that lists of Gülen sympathizers were drawn up prior to the coup attempt. (Turkey Purge)