Turkish authorities have suspended 9,103 personnel from the police force, broadcaster CNN Turk reported on Wednesday, as part of an investigation of over alleged links with a U.S.-based cleric who Ankara says orchestrated a failed coup last July.
In the aftermath of the abortive coup, authorities arrested 40,000 people and sacked or suspended 120,000 from a wide range of professions, including soldiers, police, teachers and public servants, over alleged links with terrorist groups.
Earlier on Wednesday, more than 1,000 people had been detained in a police purge in 72 provinces across the country.
Turkey on Wednesday detained more than 1,000 people in a huge new crackdown against alleged supporters of a cleric accused of orchestrating the coup bid against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The dawn raids across the country — seeking more than 3,000 suspects — come just over a week after Erdogan narrowly won a controversial referendum on ramping up his powers.
They are the latest indication Turkey intends no let-up in the fight against its perceived enemies after the vote, with fighter jets Tuesday pounding Kurdish militant targets in Iraq and northern Syria.
A total of 1,120 suspects have so far been detained, the official Anadolu news agency said. Anadolu said 4,672 suspects were sought — of whom 1,448 are already in jail — meaning that a total of 3,224 arrest warrants were issued.
About 8,500 police officers were involved in the nationwide operation, Anadolu reported, adding that arrest warrants had been issued for 390 suspects in Istanbul alone.
The Hurriyet newspaper reported that arrest warrants had been issued against a total of 7,000 suspects across Turkey, citing unidentified sources. The suspects are so-called “secret imams” of Gulen suspected of infiltrating themselves into the police or other state institutions, it reported.
The vast operation targeted big cities such as Istanbul as well as Izmir in western Turkey and Konya in the Anatolian heartland.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had hinted in a television interview this month that a new anti-Gulen crackdown had been in the pipeline.
Analysts have said Erdogan, after his poll win, can choose between new confrontation or reconciliation with the West but in recent days tensions have risen further.
Turkish warplanes killed more than two dozen Kurdish fighters Tuesday in strikes in Syria and Iraq, angering the United States.
Ankara said it had carried out the strikes against “terrorist havens”, vowing to continue acting against groups it links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In northeast Syria, strikes targeted the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — who are leading the offensive against the IS stronghold Raqa.
The US State Department said it was “deeply concerned” the strikes were conducted “without proper coordination either with the United States or the broader global coalition” against IS. Ankara said it had informed the US and Russia before the strikes.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted on Tuesday to reopen a monitoring probe into Turkey over rights concerns, sparking anger from Ankara.
