{"id":27173,"date":"2016-07-24T06:27:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T06:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/turkey-detains-top-gulen-aide-after-coup-attempt\/"},"modified":"2016-07-24T06:27:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T06:27:40","slug":"turkey-detains-top-gulen-aide-after-coup-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/turkey-detains-top-gulen-aide-after-coup-attempt\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey detains top Gulen aide after coup attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Main aide to cleric blamed for a failed military coup attempt has been detained, after Gulen’s nephew is also held.}<\/p>\n

Turkish authorities detained on Saturday a key aide to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim cleric Turkey blames for a failed military coup attempt.<\/p>\n

Halis Hanci, described as Gulen’s right-hand man, apparently entered Turkey two days before the abortive coup, a presidency official told reporters.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Saturday, Turkish authorities also detained a nephew of Gulen in connection to the coup attempt, the Anadolu state news agency reported.<\/p>\n

Muhammed Sait Gulen was detained in the northeastern city of Erzurum and will be brought to the capital Ankara for questioning.<\/p>\n

Among possible charges that could be brought against him is membership of a “terrorist” organisation, the agency said, adding that he was also wanted over the leak of questions from the 2010 civil service exams.<\/p>\n

It is the first time a relative of Gulen has been reported detained since the July 15 events. In May this year, another nephew of the former imam in self-imposed exile was detained in connection with schools run by the movement, according to a state media report at the time.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania-based Gulen is accused of “masterminding” the July 15 attempt to topple the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan through his movement – a claim he strongly denies. Turkey is seeking Gulen’s extradition from the US.<\/p>\n

Widening purge<\/p>\n

Turkey has detained over 13,000 people as part of a crackdown in response to a failed military coup, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Saturday, not long after the presidential guard became the latest target of the purge. <\/p>\n

Of those detained, 6,000 have been placed under arrest. <\/p>\n

Some 37,500 civil servants and police officers have so far been suspended, including many from the education ministry. <\/p>\n

The rapid pace of arrests since the coup attempt has worried many of Turkey’s Western allies, who say they see the country going down an increasingly authoritarian road.<\/p>\n

Presidential guard disbanded<\/p>\n

Earlier on Saturday, Erdogan issued a decree to close 2,341 institutions – including schools, charities, unions and medical centres – in the wake of the failed coup.<\/p>\n

Turkey approves three-month state of emergency after failed coup
\nThe decree, which local media noted as being the first taken under the powers of the recently-declared state of emergency, also extends the legal time a person can be detained to 30 days.<\/p>\n

Also on Saturday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said authorities would disband the elite presidential guard after detaining almost 300 of its members in the wake of the failed coup.<\/p>\n

“There will no longer be a presidential guard, there is no purpose, there is no need,” Yildirim said, speaking to A Haber channel. <\/p>\n

The presidential guard is a regiment numbering up to 2,500 people, but at least 283 of its members had been detained after the attempted coup.<\/p>\n

\"Gulen<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Main aide to cleric blamed for a failed military coup attempt has been detained, after Gulen’s nephew is also held.} Turkish authorities detained on Saturday a key aide to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim cleric Turkey blames for a failed military coup attempt. Halis Hanci, described as Gulen’s right-hand man, apparently entered Turkey two days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-27173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27173"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=27173"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=27173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}