Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 84 university academics suspected of links with US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed by authorities for last month’s failed coup, media reported on Friday.
Police launched an operation in 17 provinces including Konya in central Anatolia, a conservative bastion of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the private Dogan news agency reported. Twenty-nine academics have been detained so far, it added. A large majority of the suspects were from Selcuk University in Konya, including the university’s former rector, Professor Hakki Gokbel.
To the alarm of its Western partners, Turkey has pressed ahead with a vast crackdown on alleged coup plotters in the wake of July 15 military action seeking to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power.