Turkey issues arrest warrant for 216 suspects over links with failed coup
Turkish authorities have issued arrest warrants for 216 individuals, including former Finance Ministry staff, on suspicion of having links to the 2016 failed coup in the country.
State-run Anadolu news agency reported on Wednesday that the authorities have already arrested 17 former finance ministry personnel and that they are after another 65 staff over their alleged links to the coup.
Meanwhile, the Turkish officials launched operations in 40 provinces across the country, targeting “private imams” who are suspected of recruiting members to join the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey blames for having engineered the coup d’etat.
On Monday, Turkey issued arrest warrants for a total of 107 teachers and detained 51 of them as part of its massive crackdown on the coup suspects.
Gulen runs an extensive network of international education and religious programs with branches in Turkey and several other countries. The cleric, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has denied any involvement in the coup that left more than 250 people dead.
He has said on several occasions that the post-coup crackdown, in which more than 50,000 people have been jailed and around 150,000 others dismissed from their jobs, was an attempt to consolidate Erdogan’s grip on power.
Rights groups and European governments have repeatedly criticized Ankara for the continued crackdown, saying it has mainly targeted dissent. They also censure a simultaneous push by Turkey against the country’s Kurdish population.
Erdogan’s government maintains that Gulen’s network has deeply infiltrated Turkey’s judiciary, army, schools and other institutions, saying the purges are the only way to neutralize what he calls the threat posed by coup plotters.
Ankara also dismisses allegations of unjust treatment of the Kurds, saying many of those arrested have had links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and have helped militants carry out attacks against civilians and security forces across the country over the past years.
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