Turkey holds over 1,000 ‘secret imams’

Leader continues crackdown after coup attempt

ISTANBUL — More than 1,000 people, accused of being “secret imams” for a U.S.-based cleric who the authorities have said was responsible for a failed coup in July, were detained Wednesday in the largest such sweep in months.

The civilian detainees are accused of directing police officers also loyal to the cleric, effectively creating a parallel leadership.

Over 9,100 police officers were suspended later in the day because of their alleged links to the movement, Anadolu Agency, a state-run news wire, reported Wednesday night.

About 45,000 people have already been taken into custody since the coup attempt, but the raids on Wednesday represented the first widespread roundup of political opponents since a referendum on April 16 to expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Infiltration alleged

Some analysts had wondered whether the crackdown might slow as Erdogan tried to establish greater national consensus after winning the contentious referendum, but the scale of the raids suggested it was just as likely to accelerate. The sweeping purge of state institutions has led to the firing of about 130,000 people.

The interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, said officers had detained 1,009 people whom he described as high-ranking members of the Islamic group led by the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States. The group is accused of infiltrating many Turkish institutions over the past three decades.

According to Soylu, the “secret imams” were part of a parallel leadership structure within the police force that was ultimately answerable to Gulen, whose extradition has long been sought by the Turkish authorities.

Gulen a likely topic

The subject of Gulen is almost certain to be discussed at a coming meeting in Washington between President Donald Trump and Erdogan, whose government was allied to the cleric’s movement before the two fell out publicly in 2013.

The raids were a “most important step toward uncovering a group that leaked into the police force, trying to rule the police force from outside, trying to establish an almost alternative police organization, ignoring the rules of the state,” Soylu said, in remarks quoted by Anadolu.

The crackdown has targeted not just those believed to be “Gulenists,” but also leftist and liberal dissidents, including journalists, soldiers, judges, lawyers, teachers and professors.

Some people have been purged simply for placing their children in Gulenowned schools or for putting their money in Gulenowned banks.