[ALMASDARNEWS] Turkish prosecutors have ordered the detention of 73 air force pilots, the latest in a stream of police operations related to the investigation of July's attempted coup, the state-run Anadolu news agency said Thursday.The operation targeting supporters of U.S.-based holy man Fethullah Gulen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
, whom Ankara blames for the putsch, focused on an air base in the central Turkish province of Konya and spread across 17 provinces, it said.
Other media reports said more than 200 soldiers and civilians were to be detained in coup-related operations Thursday.
Since the July 15 coup attempt,
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
has tossed in the calaboose
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
35,000 people and sacked or suspended more than 100,000 others in the civil service, judiciary, police, military and elsewhere. Gulen denies involvement in the failed coup.
The latest suspects were accused of "armed rebellion against the Turkish Republic" and membership of what Ankara calls the Gulenist Terror Organisation, the privately-owned Dogan news agency said. Anadolu said 71 of those sought were lieutenants.
The latest detentions will bring to more than 300 the number of pilots dismissed or arrested as part of the coup investigation. The shake-up comes as Turkey's military pursues an offensive against ISIS in Syria and targets Kurdish gunnies there, as well as in Iraq and southeast Turkey.
Police last week detained 47 soldiers in a similar operation focused on the Konya base, of which 29 were subsequently remanded in jug, Dogan said.
On Wednesday, Ankara said it had replaced three quarters of provincial police heads as part of the crackdown.
Turkish officials have said the interior ministry has ramped up efforts to purge the police and state institutions after the appointment at the end of August of a new minister, Suleyman Soylu, seen as close to President Tayyip Erdogan.