Operation in Turkey to arrest 229 members of the army on coup charges
The Turkish police and gendarmerie have launched several operations on Monday to arrest 229 active and dismissed members of the army, accused of belonging to the network of followers of the Islamist cleric Fethullah Gülen, to whom Ankara blames the failed military coup of 2016.
According to the semi-state Anadolu news agency, 125 people had been arrested in the early hours of the day after the operations, ordered by the chief prosecutor of the western province of Izmir, were launched after midnight simultaneously in 47 of the country's 81 provinces.
Of the suspects, including two colonels, 86 belong to the Navy, the Land Forces, the Air Force Command, the Gendarmerie General Command or the Coast Guard Command, while 143 were military academy students who were dismissed after the failed assault.
The so-called "Gülenists", former allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), were declared a "terrorist organisation" after the coup attempt five years ago on the night of 15-16 July 2016.
Since then, the Turkish government has carried out several waves of purges in the civil service and education sector, with more than 100,000 arrests and the dismissal of more than 130,000 civil servants. Some 50,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians, have been remanded in custody.
