Turkish authorities detained 208 individuals across 47 provinces on Tuesday for alleged ties to the faith-based Gülen movement, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced.
The operations, conducted in provinces including Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, and Antalya, targeted individuals accused of financially supporting the movement and communicating with its members through encrypted messaging applications.
The Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, has been at the center of a sweeping crackdown in Turkey since 2013, when corruption investigations implicated then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and several members of his cabinet and family. Erdoğan dismissed the investigations as a conspiracy orchestrated by Gülen’s followers to undermine his government.
Following the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016 — which Erdoğan blamed on the Gülen network — the government designated the movement a terrorist organization and escalated efforts to dismantle its alleged presence in the public sector, civil society, and the private sphere. The movement has consistently denied any involvement in the coup or in terrorist activities.
According to official figures, over 705,000 people have been investigated in relation to the movement since 2016. At least 13,251 individuals are currently imprisoned, either pending trial or serving sentences on terrorism-related charges linked to alleged Gülenist affiliations.
The latest wave of arrests underscores the continued intensity of the government’s campaign against what it calls the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization” (FETÖ), despite international criticism over mass detentions, prolonged trials, and human rights concerns.
