Detention warrants have been issued by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for 71 people working in the education sector over alleged links to the Gülen movement, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Friday.
According to report, 63 of those sought used to work at educational institutions closed down by the government following a botched coup attempt last July, while eight were working for Turkey’s Education Ministry.
The media reported that 40 of the suspects in Aksaray, Mersin, Kayseri and Bolu provinces were detained on Friday.
The military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 killed 249 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement and initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants after the coup attempt.