Turkish Police Operation to Arrest Dozens of University Professors Linked to Last Year's Coup

Months after the failed coup in Turkey, the police have launched an operation to arrest 42 staff members of Marmara University in Istanbul in connection with the incident, with more than half of these individuals already detained. Reuters reported on Friday, November 17, citing a Turkish police source, that 22 of the university staff have been arrested so far. The police source added that these individuals are suspected of being connected to the 'Fethullah Gülen network,' a religious figure opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been residing in the United States for years and whom Ankara identifies as the mastermind behind the July 2016 coup in Turkey. Gülen himself has condemned the coup and denied any connection to it. Since the failed coup, which occurred on the evening of July 15, 2016, and was thwarted hours later with the arrest and dismissal of several military and judicial officials, Turkish authorities have detained nearly 50,000 people, and around 150,000 others, mostly educators, judicial officials, and military personnel, have been dismissed or suspended from their jobs. The post-coup crackdown in Turkey has raised alarms among many Western allies and human rights groups, who are concerned that the Turkish government is using the coup as a pretext to eliminate its critics. During the failed coup and its aftermath, more than 240 people lost their lives, and the Turkish government claims that the arrests and dismissals related to this event are necessary to counter security threats. In this context, over 250 other employees have been detained in Turkey on charges of connections to Gülen.