Almost five years since a botched coup attempt, the Turkish authorities are still on the hunt for soldiers thought to belong to the outlawed network blamed for the putsch, with the purge now apparently spreading to the lower ranks of the military.
On April 26, Turkey woke up to a massive roundup of suspected followers of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who had built a sprawling network in the Turkish military, judiciary and police. The network is now designated as a terrorist group. The operation — the largest in the past two years — kicked off simultaneously in 62 of Turkey’s 81 provinces and Turkish Cyprus, targeting 459 on-duty military personnel. The suspects were caught in the prosecutors’ net for alleged phone communication with undercover group leaders of the Gulenist network called “imams.”
Al-Monitor has learned that the detention orders targeted more than 350 members of the land forces and the gendarmerie, while the remaining suspects belong to the air and naval forces. Some 20 suspects serve at the Defense Ministry. Nearly 380 of the suspects are noncommissioned officers, with the rest ranking from lieutenant to colonel.
What to make of such large-scale probes still going on despite the many purges that have already taken place since the July 15, 2016, coup attempt?
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