Parallel state

Turkey will take steps to try to prevent use of the term "Turkish school" by international educational facilities linked to the network of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated.

Some 2839 Turkish Armed Forces officers have been arrested as of Saturday evening, less than 24 hours after an attempted coup d'etat in Turkey was thwarted, officials say.

The arrested military include two generals, but no names are given.

Another 2745 Turkish judges have been dismissed in the wake of the coup attempt, according to Anadolu Agency.

Any country that would harbor Fethullah Gülen, the leader of the parallel state that is regarded as the mastermind of July 15's coup attempt would not be Turkey's friend, the Turkish prime minister has said, obviously urging the United States where the self-exile religious leader lives since late 1990s. 

An Istanbul court sent nine suspects, reportedly former employees of Islamic lender Bank Asya, to court with demands for their arrest on April 20, while it released 18 others in a probe into the financial links of Fethullah Gülen sympathizers.

Some 17 other suspects were also sent to court with demands for legal control. 

Turkish police detained nearly 100 people in an investigation of their alleged financial links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, a foe of President Tayyip Erdo?an, state-run Anadolu Agency said on April 18. 

Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation against a member of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (M?T), Haluk Özcan, for links to the "parallel structure" - a group of Fethullah Gülen sympathizers accused of trying to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, the former's ally-turned-foe.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalç?n Akdo?an, a highly visible figure with a large portfolio already, has been tasked with the additional duties of coordinating both the government's fight against the activities of the "parallel state structure," a purported illegal organization allegedly led by U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, and its activities concerning Syrian refugees.

For the past seven months the Turkish army and police forces have been fighting a quasi-uprising led by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern towns near the Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian borders, but on March 30 Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu had a 3.5-hour meeting in Ankara on another security issue bothering the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti).

Before Turkish President Tayyip Erdo?an took off for his official trip to the U.S. on March 29, a reporter asked what he thought about the trial of Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab (or R?za Sarraf, according to his Turkish passport). 

"The Zarrab case doesn't concern Turkey. Mr. Zarrab's lawyers will make his defense," Erdo?an said.

The U.S. probe into Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-born Turkish businessman who was arrested in Miami on March 19 over Iran-related sanction charges, doesn't concern Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has said, while calling on U.S. officials to act against institutions linked to Fethullah Gülen.