Detention warrants issued for 41 Turkish military personnel over alleged Gülen links

The Kayseri Chief Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday issued detention warrants for 41 active duty and former military personnel as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, the news website T24 reported.

According to the report, at least 20 of 41 officers including 31 active duty, have been detained in police operations in 16 provinces across Turkey on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, an Turkish judge in Ordu province, identified as S.G. who was earlier removed from her post over alleged links to the Gülen movement, was put in pre-trial detention over terror charges in Eskişehir on Monday.

Detained last wek along with her husband, a former police chief, who was also dismissed from the office, S.G. was jailed on charges of establishing and leading a “terror group.” The couple has long been hiding across different cities, escaping outstanding arrest warrants.

Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.

Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government 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 has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. On December 13, 2017 the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on April 18, 2018 that the Turkish government had jailed 77,081 people between July 15, 2016 and April 11, 2018 over alleged links to the Gülen movement.

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from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/detention-warrants-issued-for-41-turkish-military-personnel-over-alleged-gulen-links/