Dozens arrested in Turkish coup crackdown

There are increasing concerns in the west over the situation in Turkey, where dozens of people were arrested in following last month's failed coup.

Turkish police have searched the offices of a nationwide retail chain and a healthcare and technology company, arresting dozens of people in some of the biggest raids on private businesses since last month's failed coup.

More than 35,000 people have been detained in a massive purge since the July 15 attempted putsch, when a group of rogue soldiers commandeered tanks, warplanes and helicopters in an attempt to overthrow the government.

Around half of those detained on Tuesday have been placed under formal arrest and tens of thousands more have been suspended in the military, police and civil service.

The breadth of the probe has worried the west, which fears President Tayyip Erdogan is using it to quash dissent.

Private businesses have also been targeted in what the government describes as a crackdown on followers of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric based in self-imposed exile in the United States, who is blamed by Turkey for the coup.

Police targeted discount supermarket chain A101 and healthcare and technology group Akfa Holdings, on suspicion they gave financial support to Gulen's network, state-run Anadolu Agency said.

Gulen denies involvement in the coup.

Washington says it will extradite him to Turkey only if presented with firm evidence.

Turkey's foreign minister spoke to US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday about Gulen's extradition, foreign ministry sources said. Kerry is due to visit Turkey this month.

A101, which operates thousands of stores across Turkey, said financial crimes police searched its Istanbul headquarters for six hours on Tuesday morning.

A101 said it had no "corporate, financial or trade links" to any illegal group, although it acknowledged that now-defunct Islamic lender Bank Asya had once been a shareholder. The bank was founded by Gulen's followers and later seized by regulators, and is now being wound down.

Private news agency Dogan said police detained A101's chairman, Turgut Aydin, at his home in the eastern Black Sea province of Trabzon. Aydin and his family are also majority owners of the Memorial hospitals group. Some 36,000 people work for his companies.

Police also searched offices at the main courthouse on the Asian side of Istanbul, according to a courthouse employee, a day after major raids on three courthouses on the European side of the city, which sits on the strait dividing the continents.

Police had detention warrants for 83 people at the court, Anadolu reported. A day earlier police detained at least 136 court staff in the raids on courts on the European side of the city.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of harnessing an extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to infiltrate state institutions and build a "parallel structure" that aimed to take over the country.

Before the failed coup, in which more than 240 people were killed, the authorities had already seized Bank Asya, taken over or closed several media companies and detained businessmen on allegations of funding the cleric's movement.

In a speech to his ruling AK Party deputies in parliament on Tuesday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim sought to calm public concerns about the purge.


Share
3 min read

Published

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world
Dozens arrested in Turkish coup crackdown | SBS News