Eleven suspected members of the outlawed Fethullah Gülen movement were detained in western Turkey as they attempted to cross into Greece to escape the regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Anadolu News Agency reported on Sunday.
Coastguard teams in the Physkos (Φύσκος, Turkish: Marmaris) district of southwestern Turkey launched an operation on Friday to arrest the Gülenists after learning they were trying to escape to Greece, the source told Anadolu.
The group of 13 included dismissed soldiers, police officers, midwives and teachers.
Fethullah Gülen is an Islamist preacher that was once allied to Erdoğan but is now accussed of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt and has been accused of infiltrating Turkey’s institutions, including academia, the military, judiciary, and the media.
This latest incident involving the outlawed Turkish group comes as there has been a string of Turks seeking asylum in Greece.
At least 18,000 to 20,000 Turkish opposition members and citizens arrived in Greece in the last four years and 9,000 of them have sought political asylum, as reported by Greek City Times.
