ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey on Friday detained 57 people in an operation that is part of an investigation into the failed July 15 coup, state media said.
The 57 were detained in six different provinces, with over 100 arrest warrants issued, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. Efforts to detain the remaining suspects are in progress, it added.
The suspects are believed to have links to the group of Fethullah Gulen, the United States-based preacher Ankara accuses of being behind the failed plot to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it said. Gulen denies the charges.
The Haberturk daily said on its website that those held are former employees of the stock exchange suspected of using an encrypted messaging application called Bylock.
Turkey said this was especially created for Gulen supporters.
The suspects are also accused of performing transactions on behalf of Bank Asya, a bank once closely affiliated with Gulen.
Some 47,000 people have been arrested under the state of emergency imposed after the coup, while tens of thousands more have lost their jobs.
Late last month, Turkey dismissed almost 4,000 public officials under the state of emergency while over 9,100 police were suspended on April 26.
Ankara says that the action is necessary to rid Turkey of what Erdogan calls the “virus” created by Gulen’s infiltration of key Turkish institutions.