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40 arrested, 87 detained over coup charges on Sunday

At least 40 people were arrested while 87 others were detained on Sunday, according to Turkish news agencies.

Police carried out the operations in eight provinces across Turkey. With most of the arrestees being businessmen, those arrested over the past day also included teachers and university personnel.

Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, called for an international investigation into the coup attempt, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

More than 100,000 people have been purged from state bodies, nearly 43,000 detained and 32,000 arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees include journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, governors and even a comedian.

Critics argue that lists of Gülen sympathizers were drawn up prior to the coup attempt. (Turkey Purge)

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