Turkish police have detained 27 people in operations in 16 provinces as part of a Kocaeli-based investigation into the Gülen movement, which is accused of being behind a failed coup last year.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, 27 people were detained in Kocaeli, Ankara, İstanbul, Denizli, Bursa, Çanakkale, Muğla, İzmir, Antalya, Kayseri, Bolu, Kahramanmaraş, Afyonkarahisar, Mardin, Eskişehir and Düzce provinces after a Kocaeli court issued detention warrants for 30 suspects.
Twenty-eight out of the 30 suspects are active-duty soldiers, 11 of whom are lieutenants and 17 noncommissioned officers, Anadolu said.
Despite US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, whose views inspired the Gülen movement, and the movement having denied any involvement in the botched coup, Turkish authorities launched a widespread witch-hunt that led to the purge of at least 146,000 people from state jobs, the detention of nearly 125,000 and the arrest of more than 58,000, including soldiers, police officers, judges, prosecutors, academics, journalists and civilians over alleged links to the movement.