REUTERS - Turkish prosecutors
ordered the arrest of 87 people linked to Istanbul University in an
investigation targeting followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen,
accused
by Ankara of being behind July's attempted coup, media reported on Friday.
Broadcaster CNN Turk
said police carried out simultaneous raids across 12 provinces, targeting
suspects including someone it said was the head of a minor political party and
many professors from the university.
Some 36,000 people
have been jailed pending trial and more than 100,000 sacked or suspended in the
civil service, army, judiciary and other institutions under investigations
linked to the July 15 putsch, in which more than 240 people were killed.
Last month, police
detained dozens of academics from the city's Yildiz University in the same
crackdown.
Turkey's Western
allies have voiced concern at the breadth of the purges under President Tayyip
Erdogan, who has repeatedly rejected such criticism, saying Ankara is
determined to root out its enemies at home and abroad.
State-run Anadolu
agency said the latest raids targeted the academic structure of what Ankara
terms the 'Gulenist Terror Organisation'. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed
exile in Pennsylvania, denies involvement in the putsch.
REUTERS
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