Turkey: new arrests among supporters of preacher Gülen

The Turkish authorities announced Tuesday, November 8 the arrest of 27 people, including previously dismissed soldiers, suspected of links with the preacher Fethullah Gülen, a pet peeve of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who accuses him of having orchestrated an attempted putsch in 2016.

These 27 people, including a general and two army officers already victims of the purges which followed the failed coup, were arrested in Ankara and Istanbul and seven other people are still wanted, reported the official agency. Anadolu.

Fethullah Gülen : “terrorist organization”

The operation, carried out in five Turkish provinces, targets within the army and the justice system relatives or sympathizers of the “terrorist organization Fetö”, an acronym used by the regime to designate the Gülenist movement.

A previous crackdown in October led to the arrest of more than 700 people suspected of participating in the movement’s financial activities. Once a valuable ally of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Fethullah Gülen — settled in the United States for more than 20 years — was accused by Turkish authorities of spreading corruption accusations against the government in December 2013, when Recep Tayyip Erdogan was still prime minister.

The 81-year-old preacher is considered by President Erdogan to be the instigator of the July 2016 coup attempt. Since then, Turkish authorities have carried out more than 300,000 arrests, in particular among the ranks of the police, justice and the army and among intellectuals and journalists.

Turkey demands from Sweden and Finland the extradition of Gülenist militants living on their soil, making it a condition for the ratification by the Turkish Parliament of the accession of the two Nordic countries to NATO.