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Dozens of Turkey Academics Held in Post-Coup Crackdown
[AnNahar] ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Friday detained dozens of academics suspected of backing Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , the alleged criminal mastermind of last month's failed coup, while pressing ahead with raids on businesses linked to the U.S.-based Moslem preacher. Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 84 academics nationwide, the private Dogan news agency reported, while the state-run Anadolu agency said Istanbul authorities were separately hunting 62 academics from the city's main university. A total of 74 scholars were tossed into the calaboose so far in both operations, media said. A large majority of the suspects in the nationwide raids were from Selcuk University in Konya, central Anatolia -- a conservative bastion of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) -- including the university's former rector, Professor Hakki Gokbel. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said this week that more than 40,000 state employees were tossed into the calaboose in the purge, with more than 20,000 remanded in jug. More than 5,000 civil servants have been dismissed and almost 80,000 others suspended, he added. - Crackdown on businesses - Police on Friday widened their probe into alleged Gulen-linked businesses, issuing arrest warrants for 18 more suspects, bringing the total number of those being searched to 205, Dogan reported. Police launched mass raids Thursday in the commercial hub Istanbul and 18 other provinces into companies with suspected ties to Gulen -- the biggest crackdown on business since the failed putsch, with prosecutors ordering their assets to be seized. Dogan reported that Friday's fresh raids targeted the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (Tuskon), which has 55,000 members. Prosecutors were already seeking its president, Rizanur Meral. Posted by: trailing wife 2016-08-20 |
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