Turkey Issues Detention Warrants for 137 More Academics

Local Editor

Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 137 academics on Wednesday over suspected links to the cleric who Ankara says orchestrated an attempted coup, CNN Turk reported, widening a crackdown that has worried rights groups and Western allies.

Turkey had formally arrested more than 37,000 people and had already sacked or suspended 100,000 civil servants, judges, prosecutors, police and others in an unprecedented purge.

The government said it is rooting out supporters of Fethullah Gulen, who lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999, from the state apparatus and other key positions.

Gulen had denied Ankara's charges and denounced the July failed coup by rogue members of the military.

Among the latest suspects, 31 of them had already been detained and another 22 are believed to have fled abroad, CNN Turk said, citing the Ankara Prosecutor's Office. The prosecutor's office could not be reached for comment.

Over the weekend, Turkey dismissed more than 10,000 civil servants over alleged links to Gulen. Thousands of academics, teachers and health workers were among those removed through a new emergency rule decree published late on Saturday.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team