Thirteen people were detained while on their way to Greece to flee a post-coup crackdown in Turkey, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Anadolu said gendarmes stopped a group of 13 people in the Gavurağılı neighborhood of western Muğla province. Some members of the group were apprehended after they attempted to escape to avoid interrogation.
Anadolu said arrest warrants were outstanding for four of the suspects, identified as Şenol U., Oğuzhan P., Hüseyin S. and Mahmut A., over alleged ties to the Gülen movement. While the four were detained and subsequently put in pretrial detention, three women and five children were released.
No information was available about the remaining person.
The group was allegedly on its way to take a boat from Muğla to the Greek coastline.
Thousands of people have fled Turkey due to a massive witch-hunt launched by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government against sympathizers of the Gülen movement in the wake of a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016. The government accuses the movement of masterminding the coup, while the latter denies any involvement.
Some 150,000 have lost their jobs, more than 126,000 have been detained and some 56,000 including academics, judges, doctors, teachers, lawyers, students policemen and others have been put in pre-trial detention since summer 2016.
Many have tried to exit Turkey illegally since the government has revoked thousands of passports. (Turkey Purge)