The chief public prosecutor’s office in the southern Turkish province of Adana has issued detention warrants for 56 people on accusations that they were restructuring educational activities linked to the Gülen movement, the Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday.
The Gülen movement, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government, used to run thousands of prep schools and schools in Turkey. The Turkish government decided to close down all prep schools in the country in late 2013 in a move that was interpreted as a blow to the education activities of the movement.
All the schools, companies and organizations run by the movement were shuttered by the government in the aftermath of a coup attempt in July 2016 as the government accuses the movement of masterminding the coup. The movement strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch.
Police teams raided the offices of six private prep schools in Adana on the grounds that they were opened as an alternative to Gülen-linked prep schools. The offices were searched, and some documents and computers were seized by the police.
The Adana police detained 25 out of the 56 people for whom detention warrants were issued.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government launched a massive crackdown on followers of the movement on the pretext of an anti-coup fight as a result of which more than 150,000 people were removed from state jobs while in excess of 50,000 others were jailed and some 600,000 people have been investigated on allegations of terrorism.