Ankara orders arrest of 100 military suspects over alleged Gulen ties

Turkey ordered the arrest of more than 100 soldiers and former military students over suspected links to the network of the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, prosecutors said on Friday. Gulen, who is accused of orchestrating a 2016 attempted coup, denies any involvement. The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said it ordered the arrest of 50 suspects - six of them officers and the rest military academy students expelled after the putsch - in an investigation into people linked to Gulen in the military. The operation, spread across 16 provinces, was focused on calls made over fixed phone lines, Reuters reported. Colonels, majors, lieutenants and other serving officers were facing arrest over pay phone calls they made to other alleged Gulen-linked people, the statement said. Many suspects have already been detained, it added.