Prosecutors and state media said on Friday Turkey has ordered the arrest of more than hundred soldiers and former military students over suspected links to the network of the US-based Muslim cleric accused of orchestrating a 2016 attempted coup.
Police operations targeting supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen have been carried out regularly since the failed putsch and have recently gained momentum. Gulen denies involvement in the coup attempt, in which two hundred and fifty people were killed.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said it ordered the arrest of 50 suspects — six of them officers and the rest military academy students expelled after the putsch — in an investigation into people linked to Gulen in the military.
Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies have voiced concerns over the crackdown, saying President Tayyip Erdogan has used the abortive putsch as a pretext to quash dissent. The government has said the security measures were necessary due to the gravity of the threat Turkey faces.
[…] and state media said on earleir today, Turkey has ordered the arrest of more than hundred soldiers and former military students over suspected links to the network of the US-based Muslim cleric accused of orchestrating a 2016 […]
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