Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş announced on Wednesday that prosecutors have taken legal action based on coup charges against a total of 115,000 people who are allegedly connected with the Gülen movementsince a failed military coup attempt in Turkey on 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. The movement strongly denies any involvement in the coup attempt.
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.
More than 100,000 people have been purged from state bodies and 34,000 arrested since the failed coup. Arrestees include journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, governors and even a comedian.