As part of a massive purge currently ongoing in Turkey, on the last day of the year 14 dismissed personnel from the Ministry of Justice were arrested in Ankara on coup charges and links to the Gülen movement, which is accused by the government of plotting a failed coup on July 15.
Twenty-five civil servants purged from the Ministry of Justice had been detained in a recent investigation. Seven were released on probation after they allegedly agreed to become informants. The status of the remaining four is unknown.
Turkey has arrested over 40,000 people as part of its purge, particularly against the Gülen movement, and has dismissed over 100,000 people from public service on coup charges.
Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who is in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, denies the accusations of coup plotting and called for an international investigation into the coup.
The government calls the peaceful movement the “Fethullahist Terror Organization,” or “FETÖ.” The label has been picked up by almost all media in Turkey and even among the opposition in the absence of any court verdict proving terrorist activity on the part of the movement.