THE Turkish Government has ordered the detention of 47 military personnel of the its army over a suspected connection to a failed coup in 2016.
According to a report, the Turkish Government had launched operations in 40 provinces in the country to apprehend the perpetrators of the attempted coup aimed at unseating the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The operation across the 40 provinces commenced following the order of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the western province of Izmir making way for the Police teams to detain 36 of the suspects.
Earlier on Tuesday, another operation conducted in 70 provinces had 141 military personnel detained including soldiers on active duty over suspected connections with the network headed by the US-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen.
The Turkish Government blames Gulen and his network for masterminding the coup bid in July 2016, in which 250 people were killed and has been pushing for his extradition.
Gullen in an interview with the BBC had condemned the attempted coup secluding himself from the attack.
“Even if at the helm of the country there are people who would like to replace me and suppress me and oppress me at the level of blood-sucking vampires, even then I do not want to remove them with anti-democratic means.
“This is my attitude toward any and even the idea of the consideration of a military coup,” Gullen reportedly said in the interview.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94