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Academic Çalışkan sentenced to 18 months in prison over Gülen propaganda

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Associate Professor Koray Çalışkan, who was detained on July 10 as part of an investigation into 20 university academics and later released under house arrest, was sentenced to one year, six months and 22 days in prison for disseminating the propaganda of the faith-based Gülen movement on social media, the pro-government Sabah daily reported.

The ruling was made by the Istanbul 24th High Criminal Court.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government pursued a crackdown on the Gülen movement following corruption operations in December 2013 in which the inner circle of the government and then-Prime Minister Erdoğan were implicated.

Erdoğan also accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016.

Despite the movement strongly denying involvement in the failed coup, Erdoğan launched a witch-hunt targeting the movement following the putsch.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on April 18, 2018 said the total number of people who were arrested over their alleged ties to the Gülen movement between July 15, 2016 and April 11, 2018 is 77,081.

Soylu said on Dec. 12 that 234,419 passports have been revoked as part of investigations into the movement since the failed coup.

On Nov. 16 Soylu had said eight holdings and 1,020 companies were seized as part of operations against the movement.

The number of people who have been investigated for alleged ties to the faith-based Gülen movement reached 402,000 in March, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on March 15.

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