100 arrested in Turkey in Gulen probe

[Anthea]

100 arrested in Turkey in Gulen probe

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish police have detained about 100 people in connection with an ongoing probe into financial links to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees as his arch foe.

“Police arrested 100 people in Istanbul and nine other provinces across Turkey Monday,” the official Anadolu Agency reported.

It said the arrests were “part of a series of ongoing operations” related to an investigation into some $14 million given to the organization between 2004 and 2015.

Gulen is accused by the government of being behind a December 2013 corruption investigation into senior Turkish government figures, including ministers and a son of Erdogan.

Gulen, 72, runs an international Islamic network of schools, businesses, media outlets, and charity organizations from his exile home in Pennsylvania.

His is believed to be deeply influential in the Turkish judicial system and police and remains highly critical of Erdogan.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of setting up a "parallel state" and conspiring to unseat the government.

A Turkish court in December 2014 issued an arrest warrant for Gülen, accusing him of leading a criminal organization.

Gulen was an ally of Erdogan until police and prosecutors with alleged links to the exiled cleric opened a corruption probe in 2013.

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