A faction within the Turkish military launched an attempted coup against the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the night of July 15.
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Some in Turkey, including government ministers, have referred time and again to USA involvement in the failed coup, despite vehement denial from Washington.
The U.S. has told Turkey to present evidence against Gulen and let the U.S. extradition process take its course.
Authorities in Turkey have issued warrants for the detention of 47 former executives or senior journalists of Zaman newspaper, as the reclusive cleric accused by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of orchestrating a failed coup demanded the USA resist demands for his extradition.
The official insisted the warrants were not related to what individual columnists had previously said or written.
“The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provided training in several subjects to the cadre belonging to the Gulen movement”, the indictment was quoted as saying.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also criticized the USA official’s comments, saying the jailed officers are “not the only ones with the capacity to fight” the Islamic State group. “We are forced to take these measures”, he said.
Investigations into people’s relations with the Gulen movement, “the financial support they provided and their participation in other activities are continuing”, the minister said.
But the speed and scope of the current crackdown has alarmed media rights groups. At least 246 people died during the coup, and more than 2,000 were injured.
In recent years, the preacher and his followers have been accused of trying to infiltrate Turkey’s vital state institutions – especially the military, police apparatus and judiciary – with the aim of creating a “parallel state” and overthrowing the country’s elected government.
The Turkish government, which stated that the country does not own any school in Nigeria, said similar schools established in Turkey had been shut down.
According to press reports, there have also been nearly 90 warrants for the arrest of journalists issued in the past week.
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“We need to make a distinction between those who cooperate with those who carried out the coup, those who supported it, and the real journalists”, he said.
