The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that 446 people have been detained in the past week due to alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, bringing the total number of people detained in first five months of the year to 13,604.
Police had detained 10,472 people over alleged links to the movement in the first four months of 2018.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government pursued a crackdown on the Gülen movement following corruption operations in December 2013 in which the inner circle of the government and then-Prime Minister Erdoğan were implicated.
Erdoğan also accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016.
Despite the movement strongly denying involvement in the failed coup, Erdoğan launched a witch-hunt targeting the movement following the putsch.
According to The European Commission (EC) report on April 17, “since the introduction of the state of emergency on July 20,2016, over 150 000 people were taken into custody, 78 000 were arrested and over 110 000 civil servants were dismissed.”
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on Dec. 12, 2017 that 234,419 passports have been revoked as part of investigations into the movement since the failed coup.On Nov. 16, 2017 Soylu had said eight holdings and 1,020 companies were seized as part of operations against the movement. turkishminute
