ISTANBUL, Oct 26: Turkish police began an operation to detain 121 former foreign ministry staff across the country on Thursday over their alleged links to the US based cleric who Ankara says orchestrated last year’s attempted coup, state-run Anadolu agency said.
It said the ministry personnel were previously dismissed over suspected ties to Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. He has denied involvement in the failed putsch in July 2016.
Counter-terrorism police squads began simultaneous raids in 30 provinces to capture the suspects, some of whom were believed to be users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app which the government says was used by Gulen’s network, Anadolu reported.
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