Turkish authorities have over the past week detained 85 individuals due to alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing Turkish media.
Police detained 22 people on Tuesday in coordinated raids across seven provinces. Those taken into custody include former public servants dismissed after a failed coup in 2016. Authorities accuse the detainees of providing financial support to families connected to the movement.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X Wednesday that an additional 63 people had been detained in operations across 38 provinces. They are accused of financially aiding the movement and spreading its propaganda.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations revealed in December 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan as well as members of his family and 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 pursue its members. He intensified the crackdown following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement denies 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 pretrial 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.