Turkish prosecutors issued detention warrants for 66 people, including fighter pilots, in an investigation targeting alleged Gülen movement links within the Air Force Command nearly 17 months after Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
The warrants were issued as part of an investigation conducted by the Eskişehir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Turkish media reported that fighter pilots were among those sought in the operation.
The investigation was one of a continuing series of post-coup operations targeting members of the Turkish Armed Forces over alleged links to the Gülen movement, a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Ankara blames the coup attempt on the movement and designates it as a terrorist organization. The movement denies involvement in the coup or any terrorist activity.
The operation showed that military-focused investigations were continuing well beyond the immediate aftermath of the coup attempt, with prosecutors still issuing large batches of warrants in late 2017.
After the coup attempt, Turkey purged thousands of officers, pilots, cadets and military personnel from the armed forces through emergency decrees, dismissals, detentions and prosecutions.
The Air Force became one of the main targets of post-coup investigations because military aircraft were used during the events of July 15, including flights over Ankara and strikes on state institutions.
Critics of the purge said the government used the coup attempt as a basis for a much broader campaign against perceived Gülen movement sympathizers in the military, often relying on alleged affiliations rather than individualized evidence of participation in the coup attempt.
The Eskişehir warrants added to the scale of those operations, extending the crackdown to another group of current or former Air Force personnel, including pilots.
