Turkish authorities have over the past 10 days detained 93 individuals due to alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on the social media platform X on Saturday.
The operations, called “Kıskaç [Pincer]-32,” have been underway for 10 days and focused on individuals accused of ties to the Gülen movement, a worldwide civic initiative inspired by the late Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen.
27 ilde FETÖ’ye yönelik son 10 gündür devam eden “KISKAÇ-32" operasyonlarında 93 şüpheli yakalandı❗
Operasyonlarda yakalanan şüpheliler;
◼️ Örgütün "Güncel Yapılanması" içerisinde faaliyet yürütmek,
◼️ Ankesörlü telefonlarla örgüt içerisinde sorumlu şahıslar ile irtibatta… pic.twitter.com/xcRXysIqCK— Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) December 28, 2024
In 2016, Ankara designated the movement a terrorist organization and later accused the group of involvement in a failed coup attempt in July that year, a claim the group denies. This classification and the coup accusation are not recognized by most other nations, and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), UN bodies and human rights organizations frequently highlight concerns about their use to justify widespread crackdowns on dissent.
The accusations against those detained include involvement in the movement’s post-coup reorganization efforts, using a payphone to contact key figures, being named in testimony or identified by other defendants accused of membership in the movement and utilizing the encrypted messaging application ByLock.
ByLock, once widely available to the public online, has been considered a secret tool of communication among supporters of the Gülen movement, despite a lack of evidence of any terrorism-related purpose.
Turkish authorities continue to detain and prosecute people for the use of ByLock, despite a landmark ECtHR decision in late 2023 which concluded that a charge of the use of the app as evidence of terrorism activity was overly broad and arbitrary.
Coordinated by the chief public prosecutor’s offices and police, the most recent raids were conducted in 27 provinces including İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and Gaziantep.
After Gülen passed away in October in a US hospital at the age of 83, the Turkish government pledged to intensify efforts to dismantle the organization.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since corruption investigations revealed in 2013 implicated then-Prime Minister Erdoğan as well as some members of his family and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following the failed coup in 2016, which the government accuses Gülen of masterminding.
The movement rejects allegations of involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Following the abortive putsch, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. More than 130,000 public servants as well as 24,706 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
In recent years, more than 705,172 people have been investigated on terrorism or coup-related charges due to their alleged links to the movement. There are at least 13,251 people in prison who are in pre-trial detention or convicted of terrorism charges in Gülen-linked trials.
Between June 2023 and June 2024 alone, Turkish authorities carried out a total of 5,543 police operations and arrested 1,595 people linked to the movement.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.