At least five people were detained on Monday in Kutahya as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt.
The detainees also included S.B., a Turkmen citizen studying at Dumlupınar University.
Detention warrants were issued for two more people in the same investigation.
Meanwhile, 23 others were detained on Monday in the province of Mersin, in another investigation.
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 Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement, inspired by US-based Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Strongly denying any role in the putsch, 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.
Tens of thousands of civil servants, police officers and businessmen have either been dismissed or arrested for using ByLock since a failed coup attempt last July.
ByLock is considered by Turkish authorities to be the top communication tool among followers of the faith-based Gülen movement. (Turkey Purge)
