Turkish Police Arrest 56 Military Officers, 9 Police Agents Over Ties to Gülen Network
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. X/ @dailyislamist
May 23, 2025 Hour: 10:10 am
The Gülen brotherhood is considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish government.
On Friday, Turkish police arrested 56 armed forces officers and nine police agents for allegedly being members of the network led by Fethullah Gülen, the late Turkish cleric linked to the 2016 coup attempt.
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The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued arrest warrants for 63 officers from the Air Force, Navy and Army. So far, only 56 have been detained in operations carried out in Istanbul and 36 other provinces.
The Gülen brotherhood is considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish government. Police also detained nine police agents across five provinces, who are suspected of belonging to the cleric’s movement. The last major operation against Gülenists took place in November 2024, when more than 450 people were arrested in 66 of Turkey’s 81 provinces.
Gülen, who died at the age of 83 on Oct. 20, 2024, was accused by Turkey of being the mastermind behind the bloody coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
For several years, Gülen’s movement had been an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Together, they worked to reduce the influence of secular circles in Turkey, stripping the military of political power through purges of its top ranks.
However, in 2013, Erdogan broke with the movement and vowed to shut down hundreds of its schools and eliminate “Gülenists” from the state apparatus, which he described as a “state within the state.”
Following the 2016 coup attempt, in which 252 people were killed, tens of thousands were detained, including nearly a third of the top command of the Turkish military.
Erdogan reacted to Gülen’s death by saying that the “chief traitor” had left this world “without being held accountable for the blood of the martyrs.”
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE