Erdogan accuses Gulen of masterminding the coup against him.
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The Anadolu agency said at least one journalist, former Zaman columnist Sahin Alpay, was detained on Wednesday.
The official insisted the warrants were not related to what individual columnists had previously said or written. “At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation”.
“We fear there will be a witch hunt which would include journalists known as “critical” against the government”.
On Monday, media reported that arrest warrants had been issued for 42 other journalists, 16 of whom have so far been taken into custody.
Alpay is a former official of Turkey’s left-leaning, secularist main opposition CHP party.
“We received the first phone call from a civilian from the Istanbul area – you can not rationalise something based on one phone call”, he said.
The head of research at the Istanbul-based brokerage arm of one of Turkey’s largest banks, Ulker will be unable to work in Turkey’s capital markets without the CMB licence.
The newspaper also alleged that the funds, in the region of $2 billion, was moved from the United States of America into UBA Plc from where it was funnelled to the coup plotters.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister, said that he would be removing Turkish diplomats with connections to the failed coup after warning the United States of a diplomatic crisis if it did not hand over Fethullah Gulen, the exiled Islamic cleric accused by Turkey of masterminding the putsch from his home in rural Pennsylvania.
Albayrak revealed that Turkey’s Supreme Military Council (YAS), the highest body responsible for appointments in the armed forces, had been planning this summer to convene to expel all officers linked to Gulen.
Around a third of Turkey’s serving generals have been arrested pending trial since the coup attempt.
In Greece, authorities on Wednesday postponed hearings for eight Turkish soldiers who sought asylum there after fleeing Turkey. The men – three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors – deny being involved in the coup but Turkey has branded them “traitors” and is demanding their extradition. The arrests came as Ankara lashed out at what it says in the lack of solidarity from worldwide partners in the aftermath of the coup.
The country’s energy minister, meanwhile, lamented what he said was a lack of strong support from European nations and the United States toward Turkey’s efforts to counter the “anti-democratic” process.
Gulen lives in a secluded compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, but Erdogan has grounds to worry about the reclusive cleric’s reach inside Turkey.
“The investigation is continuing, there are people who are being searched for”.
Erdogan on August 9 plans to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Moscow and Ankara mended ties damaged by the downing of a Russian jet past year.
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“We will see more developed relations and that is what needs to take place”, he said, adding: “We have… common interests, a common future”.
