Turkey issues arrest warrants for 42 students and 54 naval officers for alleged links to Gülen

The Turkish authorities on Monday issued a decision to arrest 42 students from the military academy and 54 naval officers, accused of belonging to the movement of cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish regime accuses of instigating the failed coup d'état in 2016. The 54 naval officers are said to have passed the acceptance tests with the help of Gülen's movement, according to the website of the Turkish opposition newspaper Sozjo, quoted by Al-Ain News.

The prosecution points to the defendants in connection with the exams at the Naval Academy for recruiting students from the Naval Office Vocational College and their leakage by members of the opposition movement, which is said to have benefited 54 suspects out of 62 who took the tests. No incriminating evidence of these events has been presented by the Prosecutor's Office.

The investigation said 62 students received high marks from committee members. In addition, 42 other students at the military academy were dismissed as part of the coup investigation. Following the attempted coup d'état on 15 July 2016, thousands of cadets were dismissed and 259 elements were sentenced to life imprisonment for their participation in the coup attempt.

Last Saturday, a Turkish court issued the decision to arrest 36 members of the armed forces, also as part of the ongoing investigation. Since that month of July 2016, more than 8,500 members of the Turkish Armed Forces have been expelled from the army because of their alleged links with the 'Gulenist' movement. In total, more than 120,000 officials have been dismissed for the same reason and about 50,000 are imprisoned.

In addition to this persecution among the members of the armed forces, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is being persecuted against the opponents of the People's Democratic Party (HDP), such as the arrest of four HDP mayors in May on charges of being linked to the guerrilla of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The attempted coup resulted in the arrest of almost 80,000 people, including 139 journalists; more than 400,000 people under criminal investigation and the closure of 189 institutions, as well as the confiscation of 3,003 universities, public schools and student housing.