Ankara Prosecutors Order Arrest of 43 Gov't, Bank Officials Over Gulen Links

The Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for 43 current or former members of the prime minister’s office and several banks within its investigation into the activity of the movement, named after US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen in the country.

ANKARA (Sputnik) — Six among the number are acting government officials, while the other 37 were laid off work. All of them were supposedly users of the ByLock messaging application, a program linked by the Turkish authorities to the Gulen movement, the Daily Sabah newspaper said.

The arrests, which began in the morning, were carried out according to 20 warrants that included employees for several major banks such as Bank Asya, Ilbank, and the Central Bank, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

Earlier on Monday, the Anadolu news agency informed about the arrest of another group of alleged Gulen Movement supporters, which consisted of 42 people, including university professors from Turkey’s prestigious Bogazici University.

The Turkish authorities blame the Gulen movement for last year’s unsuccessful July 15 coup attempt. Gulen himself denies any involvement in the coup.