Arrest of 19 Turks and indictment of “Gülen”

Turkish authorities on Sunday arrested 19 people over alleged affiliation with the Fethullah Gülen group.

According to the website of the opposition newspaper Sözcü, this was followed by Al-Ain News.

According to the source, the arrests were made by the public prosecution in the province of  Balıkesir in the west of the country, and included 3 other states.

The arrests are part of a series of similar arrests carried out by the Turkish authorities from time to time to hunt down members of the group

Ankara accuses Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish preacher based in American Pennsylvania, of masterminding the alleged coup attempt in 2016. The latter strongly denies this, while the Turkish opposition claims that the events of the night of 15 July were a “planned coup” to liquidate opposition soldiers and members of civil society organizations.

Turkish authorities have regularly carried out thousands of arrests since the coup attempt on charges of having contact with the Gülen group, as well as many of their jobs in the army, universities, and other government jobs, under presidential decrees.

Since the coup, Turkey has launched a “purification” campaign across all public sectors that has resulted in the arrest of some 80 thousand people awaiting trial and the arbitrary dismissal or suspension of about 150 thousand government employees, military and police officers, and others.

The fact-finding report on the attempted coup, which was completed by the parliament in 2017, has yet to be published.