Turkish prosecutors on Friday sought 59 people, including military personnel, and have detained 30 of them thus far as part of a post-coup crackdown targeting the faith-based Gülen movement.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for 39 people over Gülen links.
The police raided houses in 12 provinces and detained 14 people, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
The suspects were accused of using ByLock, a smartphone application that Turkish authorities believe was used among followers of the Gülen movement.
The Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Friday also issued detention warrants for 20 people including nine active duty soldiers.
The suspects were accused of secretly communicating via pay phone, a method that the Turkish prosecutors believe is a means of communicating with the Gülen movement.
The police detained 16 of them.
The Turkish government believes the Gülen movement orchestrated a failed coup in 2016, although the movement strongly denies it.
Some 140,000 public servants have been dismissed since the abortive putsch due to alleged Gülen links, and more than 600,000 people have been investigated on allegations of terrorism.
