Turkish authorities have detained 53 people and arrested 40 of them in operations across 19 provinces, accused of links to the faith-based Gülen movement, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Wednesday.
Over the last decade Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and his movement, which in the past had been praised by the Turkish government for their activities in education and inter-religious and intercultural dialogue, have faced various accusations from the government, including masterminding corruption investigations in 2013 and a coup attempt in 2016.
Gülen, who had been living in the United States since 1999, passed away at a hospital in Pennsylvania on October 20 at the age of 83.
The Turkish government labeled Gülen and his movement as “terrorists” in May 2016.
Gülen and his followers have strongly denied any involvement in the coup or any terrorist activity but have been the subject of a harsh crackdown for a decade.
The operations were carried out in 19 provinces, including Ankara, Bursa, Diyarbakır, İstanbul and İzmir, within the past two weeks, Yerlikaya announced on Wednesday on X.
“53 FETÖ Şüphelisi Yakalandı”
🔻FETÖ’nün güncel yapılanması içerisinde faaliyet gösteren,
🔻Ankesörlü telefonlarla örgüt içindeki şahıslarla haberleşmeyi sürdüren,
🔻Sözde yardım kuruluşlarına finans sağlayan ve
🔻Sosyal medyada FETÖ’nün propagandasını yapan 53 şüpheli… pic.twitter.com/02NyHOpLZT— Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) September 10, 2025
The minister said the detainees were suspected of maintaining contact via payphones, providing financial support to organizations linked to the movement and sharing content on social media that authorities labeled as propaganda.
Yerlikaya said digital devices were also seized during the searches.
Of the 53 people detained, 40 have been arrested, while proceedings continue for the remainder, according to the minister.
The so-called “payphone investigations” are based on call records. The prosecutors allege that a member of the Gülen movement used a single payphone to call all his contacts consecutively. Based on that assumption, when an alleged member of the movement is found in call records, it is assumed that other numbers called right before or after that call also belong to people with Gülen links. The authorities do not possess the content of the calls in question. The supposition of guilt is solely based on the order of the calls made from the phone.
Minister Yerlikaya said the authorities are “resolutely continuing their fight” against Gülen followers.
Although Gülen and his followers have strongly denied any involvement in the coup or terrorist activities, the government crackdown on the movement’s members continues today in Turkey and abroad, with detentions, arrests and deportations or extraditions of followers from foreign countries.