Turkish authorities ordered the detention of 34 officers from the Naval Forces over alleged periodic and consecutive phone contacts from prepaid, payphone and shop phones.
Detention warrants were issued for four active-duty colonels, two lieutenant colonels, nine majors, 13 captains and three lieutenants.
The list also included two majors and one captain who had recently been subjected to administrative procedures because of the investigation.
The alleged phone contacts were cited as the basis for the operation.
Turkish authorities have frequently used alleged consecutive calls from payphones or other public phones as evidence in investigations targeting suspected links to the Gülen movement, a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Ankara designates the movement as a terrorist organization and blames it for Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt. The movement denies involvement.
