Türkiye detains 33 over links to Gulen movement

ANKARA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police have detained 33 people, including 20 public officials, over their alleged ties to the Gulen movement, authorities said Monday.

The raids targeted 38 suspects tied to the Gulen movement, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office said in a statement, without specifying the time frame of the operations.

The Turkish government has blamed the movement for a 2016 coup attempt and has classified it as a terrorist organization since then.

The prosecutor's office said that 20 of those detained are active public sector employees and that efforts to locate and arrest five other suspects were ongoing.

The suspects allegedly sought to nest in the General Directorate of Security (or Turkish National Police), recruiting and coding police personnel under their internal system while monitoring their loyalty to the group. Enditem