Turkey orders new mass detentions over failed coup

Image source, Reuters

Image caption, Fethullah Gulen denies Turkey's accusations he organised the failed 2016 coup

Turkey has issued a further 1,112 detention orders for people suspected of links to the man it accuses of organising a failed coup in 2016.

Hundreds of suspects have so far been detained in nationwide raids on Tuesday, the Ankara public prosecutor's office said.

This is the latest crackdown on alleged supporters of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Tens of thousands have been taken into custody since the failed coup attempt.

Tens of thousands have also lost their jobs in, or been suspended from, the public sector.

The Ankara public prosecutor's office said 130 people on the latest list of detentions were deputy police chiefs suspected of cheating on exams to become inspectors, Agence France-Presse reported.

Mr Gulen denies any involvement in the failed coup, in which more than 250 people were killed.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan considers his network a terrorist organisation.

Image source, EPA

Image caption, Supporters of the Turkish government protest against the coup in 2016

On Sunday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that the authorities were planning "a big operation" against Mr Gulen's network.

"Devils wouldn't even conduct the tricks that they did," he said, adding that Turkey would "finish them off".