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 over their alleged or real links to the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt.
At least 42 people were arrested while 192 others were detained over coup charges on Friday, according to Turkish news agencies.
Detentions and arrests were made in at least 36 provinces across Turkey. With most of the arrestees being civil servants, those arrested over the past day also included doctors, businessmen, teachers, an academic, a journalist and a university staff member.
Among those detained are military officers, doctors, a laboratory assistant, businessmen, teachers, hospital workers and association staff.
Meanwhile, Turkey arrested nine pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies on terrorism charges on Friday.
The victims of Friday’s operations carried out as part of the massive purge have been added to the already-huge 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 120,000 people have been purged from state bodies and over 36,000 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.
(Turkey Purge)