Turkey arrests 532 people accused of having links to the Gülen movement

Turkish authorities have issued arrest warrants for 532 people accused of being part of the Fethullah Gülen terrorist organisation (FETÖ), which Ankara has blamed for the failed coup attempt in 2016. The operation, which resulted in the arrest of 459 active military personnel, was jointly led by the Public Prosecutor's Office in Izmir and the Public Prosecutor's Office in Istanbul.

The aim of the Turkish judiciary is to put a stop to "terrorist infiltration" within the armed forces. According to Anadolu Agency, the arrested soldiers include four colonels, a lieutenant colonel, nine majors, 24 captains and even military school students. The prosecution claims to have uncovered evidence of contact between the suspects via prepaid cards or landline phones, and accuses them of being part of the apparatus of the cleric Fethullah Gülen, who is accused of leading the 2016 uprising.

Authorities deployed the operation in a total of 62 of the country's 81 provinces, including northern Cyprus, as part of a judicial crackdown on the Islamist cleric's network, which Ankara says is behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state by infiltrating its members into Turkish institutions, especially the army, police and judiciary.

Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdogan launched a massive campaign of arrests in the wake of the coup attempt. The number of people imprisoned has reached 80,000, most of them awaiting trial. Meanwhile, 150,000 civil servants have been dismissed or suspended from their jobs and another 20,000 military personnel have been expelled from the army for their alleged links to Gülen's movement.

The extent of the persecution of alleged coup-linked members has alarmed human rights organisations, which have taken their protests to the relevant international bodies. Turkey's hitherto Western allies have also joined the campaign, accusing President Erdogan of having launched a purge to stamp out dissent.

From power, Erdogan has singled out Kurds and followers of the Gülenist movement as Turkey's 'enemies'. However, behind this latter current in clear opposition to the current president is the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen. Gülen, 81 years old and of Turkish origin, began preaching in Smira six decades ago and eventually took up a position as an imam in the Ministry of Religious Affairs. 

Despite Erdogan's persecution of the cleric, both defended and promoted secularism in Turkey under the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. However, their alliance broke down in 2011, when Gülen rejected the anti-democratic drift that the now president Erdogan was beginning to impose.

Their relationship was permanently eroded when, according to Erdogan, in the early hours of 15-16 May 2016 a faction within the armed forces attempted to overthrow President Erdogan's mandate. The political opposition represented in parliament rejected and condemned the coup in its entirety. Turkish dissidents, however, maintain that it was Erdogan who masterminded the coup in order to use it as a justification for wider government persecution.

That same month, the president labelled the cleric's movement a terrorist organisation, and accused Gülen himself of leading the coup. Since then, the cleric's followers have been persecuted in Turkey. Many are imprisoned awaiting trial, others are banned from the labour market, and some have even had their assets frozen and their passports confiscated. Even Turkish sportsmen, such as footballer Hakan Şükür and NB player Enes Kanter, have come under attack for publicly criticising Erdogan and supporting Gülen. 

The cleric Fethullah Gülen has been living in voluntary exile for more than 15 years in a religious community in the state of Pennsylvania. Gülen has consistently denied involvement in the 2016 coup. Despite numerous extradition orders issued by Turkey, the US has not approved Gülen's surrender to his home country. Moreover, growing tensions between the two countries make a future understanding on this issue extremely difficult.