Detention warrants have been issued for 137 academics across 16 provinces as part of an ongoing crackdown on the alleged followers of the faith-based Gülen movement, which is accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a failed coup attempt on July 15.
The detention warrants for the academics were issued on Wednesday in an investigation overseen by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office against the Gülen movement. So far, 31 of the academics have been detained.
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, whose views inspired the movement, 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.
About 120,000 people have been purged from state bodies, in excess of 80,000 detained and more than 36,000 have been arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees include 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.