Detention warrants have been issued for 63 people including former employees of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, 45 of the 63 are former MİT employees while others are only linked to these people. Police, who launched operations in 21 provinces, have detained nine in Ankara.
A total of 87 out of 141 MİT officials who were suspended following a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 were dismissed from their posts as part of a witch-hunt against the Gülen movement last year.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.