News / Turkey

Turkey detains educators over ‘Gulen links’

Wednesday, 27 December 2017 10:30 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 27 December 2017 10:30 AM ]

This handout picture, released on September 24, 2013 by Zaman Daily, shows exiled Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. (Via AFP)

Police in Turkey have arrested dozens of people working at a now-shuttered university over suspected involvement in an attempted coup last year.

Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said on Wednesday that Turkish law enforcement personnel had arrested 54 staff members from Istanbul’s former Fatih University.

Fatih University, which was closed after the 2016 abortive coup attempt, was suspected of being closely linked to Turkish US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of having masterminded the coup bid.

Gulen denies the charge.

Anadolu said in its report that police had issued arrest warrants for a total of 171 academics and staff from Fatih University.

It added that police said Fatih University staff had been using an encrypted messaging application known as ByLock, which it said is commonly used by the Gulen network for secret messaging among its members.

Since the coup attempt, more than 50,000 people, including teachers, civil servants, and security personnel, have been arrested pending trial, and some 150,000 have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs.

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