Turkey- Former AKP deputy detained in major 'parallel state' operation
Date
12/11/2015 12:20:03 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) A former Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy was detained early on Dec. 11 in Istanbul as a part of a fresh wave of operations targeting the alleged “parallel state” of sympathizers of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Counter-terrorism police conducted operations in 10 provinces across Turkey including IstanbulAnkaraand anlurfa and a number of detentions were reported.
Former AKP zmir deputy lhan bilen was detained in Istanbul and was taken for a health check. He is expected to be sent to Ankara.
bilen had served as the general manager of daily Zaman and Samanyolu TV outlets known as being close to Gülen. He had resigned from the AKP after the Dec. 17-25 corruption operations and stood as an independent candidate in the June 7 general election.
Meanwhile police also sought to detain the medical doctor of Gülen but he was not at home in Istanbul’s Beylikdüzü district when they arrived.
A detention warrant was issued on Dec. 11 for 65 suspects as a part of an Ankara-based operation targeting top figures of alleged “parallel state” state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The suspects included the former editor-in-chief of Daily Zaman Ekrem Dumanl the CEO of the Koza pek group Akn pek Samanyolu TV head Hidayet Karaca who is already under arrest and Fatih University rector Professor erif Ali Tekalan.
Forty-three of the suspects are reported to have been abroad when the police arrived to detain them.
Operations targeting the purported illegal organization PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoanand the AKP government have described as the “FETÖ/PDY” have continued unabated since a parliamentary election won convincingly on Nov. 1 by the AKP.
Gülen was formerly an ally of Erdoan and was believed to have wielded considerable influence in the judiciary and the civil service.
Erdoan turned against the cleric and his followers accusing them of constituting a “parallel state” after police and prosecutors seen as sympathetic to Gülen opened a corruption investigation into Erdoan’s inner circle in 2013.
Gülen has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999 and is the subject of arrest warrants in Turkey. A prosecutor is seeking a prison sentence of up to 34 years for Gülen on allegations that he sought to topple Erdoan. Gülen denies the allegation.
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