Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday ordered detention warrants for 121 people, including military members, as part of a post-coup crackdown targeting followers of the Gülen movement.
Ankara accuses the movement of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt in which 249 people were killed, although the movement strongly denies any involvement.
The Kocaeli Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for 18 active duty and former military members over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency 14 suspects were detained in police operations conducted in nine provinces.
Also on Tuesday the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered the detention of 51 active duty and former military members for their alleged ties to the Gülen movement.
The police raided houses in 21 provinces and detained at least 27 of the suspects.
Also in Ankara 18 people are being sought by the prosecutor’s office, which accuses the suspects of infiltrating the Turkish army on behalf of the Gülen movement.
According to reports, these people were working with Kemal Batmaz, one of the main suspects of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.
On Monday a prosecutor demanded 79 life sentences for Batmaz on grounds of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, an assassination attempt on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and murder.
Meanwhile the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office also ordered detention of 34 people over Gülen links.
The prosecutor accused the suspects of using ByLock, a smartphone application that Turkish authorities believe was used among the Gülen network.
Thirty-one of the suspects were former public servants who were dismissed from their job by government decrees issued during a now-ended state of emergency.
A state-run Anadolu news agency report said 27 of the suspects were detained in police operations.
Since the coup attempt Turkey has dismissed some 140,000 public servants over Gülen links and investigated over 600,000 people on suspicion of terrorism.