Turkish police on Thursday detained nine civil servants due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement, accused by the Turkish government of mounting a botched coup attempt in July, 2016, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
According to the report, detention warrants were issued for 12 people as part of an investigation overseen by the Malatya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into the movement.
An anti-terror team detained nine civil servants working at public hospitals and the police department and for the Ministry of Defense. Some of the suspects had already been dismissed from their jobs, while others were still working when they were detained.
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 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.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July, 2016.