Ankara, June 6 : Turkish police have detained 72 suspects in nationwide raids over the past four days for alleged links to a coup attempt in 2016, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Thursday.
The suspects are accused of links to the Gulen movement, which Ankara blames for the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, Yerlikaya said.
The Turkish minister, posting on social media platform X, said that police carried out raids in an operation named “Kiskac (Pinch)-19” across 17 provinces and seized digital materials and organizational documents without providing details on the operations’ timeframe.
The detainees are suspected of involvement in the Gulen movement’s “police structure, military structure, and current structure,” he said, adding that this echoes longstanding Turkish government claims of Gulenist infiltration within the judiciary and law enforcement.
The suspects allegedly communicated via pay phones and were in contact with responsible members of the group, according to the minister.
He said their names were mentioned in the testimonies of other arrested group members.
The Turkish government has long accused Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric, of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt, which resulted in at least 250 deaths. Following the coup, Ankara launched a widespread crackdown targeting individuals suspected of having ties to the Gulen movement. (Agencies)
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