Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the detention of 78 people as part of an investigation into the alleged education network of the faith-based Gülen movement, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing the TRT Haber state broadcaster.
The operation was carried out under the coordination of the Izmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which said investigators were seeking to uncover the movement’s allegedly ongoing activities in the education sector. Authorities conducted simultaneous raids and detained 77 people, with one still at large.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and later designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
According to the latest figures from the justice ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for alleged links to the movement since 2016, with 11,085 still in prison. Legal proceedings are ongoing for over 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under active investigation nearly a decade later.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.