Turkish prosecutors have issued detention warrants for 103 people including 73 former military cadets and three former officers due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement, Bold Medya reported on Tuesday.
The detention warrants were issued by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. Forty-three of the suspects have been detained following raids across 28 provinces.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-Prime Minister Erdoğan, his family members, and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The number of the former military cadets who have been detained this year over alleged Gülen links has exceeded 1,000. The detentions are being carried out based on lists drafted by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).
