Turkey issues arrest warrants for 141 people allegedly connected to oppositionist Gulen
Turkey accuses US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of coup attempt in Turkey
ANKARA, September 20. /TASS/. The Turkish prosecutor’s office has issued arrest warrants for 141 people suspected of being linked to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and the Gulenist Terrorist Organisation (FETO), the Cumhuriyet newspaper reported on Tuesday.
According to the paper, arrests were immediately made throughout the country’s 15 regions early this morning. Among those detained were primarily doctors and teachers.
As Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has established, Gulen’s supporters have been holding talks through the ByLock mobile app messenger (installed in the Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry operating systems).
The aborted coup in Turkey was attempted overnight to July 16. A group of Turkish military servicemen was behind the plot, with the foremost clashes taking place in the Turkish capital of Ankara and in the country’s major metropolis of Istanbul. As a result, 246 people were killed (excluding the coup plotters) and more than two thousand were left wounded.
Ankara said that Gulen who has been living in the US since 1999, and the FETO members were responsible for the failed coup attempt. During the post-coup crackdown on state employees, more than 16,000 people were detained over alleged connections to FETO. More than 81,000 government employees have been suspended or dismissed.