Gulen

A Turkish-origin U.S. citizen has been revealed to be the patent holder of ByLock, an encrypted messaging application that is said to have been used by members of the Gülen Movement under U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who was accused of orchestrating the failed coup attempt of July 15.

Dozens of Turkish diplomats, military officers and their families have sought asylum in Germany since the July 15 coup attempt, local officials have said. 

The Interior Ministry said 35 Turkish diplomatic passport holders had formally applied for asylum.

Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) will form youth branches in mosques in order to prevent youth from joining religious movements that "spoil Islam," such as the movement of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. 

The practice also aims to encourage the youth to pray in mosques, daily Habertürk reported on Oct. 21.

A change in the White House will provide enormous opportunity for the new U.S. administration to sit down with Turkish leaders and think about issues strategically, the head of the Atlantic Council has said, expressing his belief that Ankara and Washington will be able to leave disagreements behind as they focus on mutual goals and interests.

The pilot who hit the Presidential Palace in Ankara during the July 15 failed coup has said that he hit the building on purpose as part of the coup, making him one of the first soldiers to admit that he acted knowing that there was a putsch against the country's elected government.

Turkish police have detained more than 70 people, including soldiers, as part of an ongoing probe into the failed coup attempt.

Forty of them are "high-ranking military officers," according to state-run Anadolu Agency.

Authorities' move to send seven Turkish nationals back to their homeland has been questioned by allegations that at least one of them demanded a trial in Bulgaria or was promised to face a court in the same country.

More than 300 judges and prosecutors facing probe or dismissal for alleged links to the Fethullah Gülen network have applied to confess the structure of the organization, the head of Turkey's top judicial body has said.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Oct. 19 listed the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, believed to be behind Turkey's July 15 coup attempt, as a terrorist organization, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said.

The seven Turkish citizens were arrested by a joint Bulgarian-Romanian border patrol while trying to cross the Danube from Bulgaria to Romania on October 14 hidden in a cargo vehicle, the deputy director of the Bulgarian border police, Svetoslav Manolov, said on Tuesday.