Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 20
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Turkey's police resumed the operations against the movement of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic public figure, currently living in the US, TRT Haber news channel reported Jan. 20.
The operations are being held in Ankara, Istanbul, Kocaeli and Sakarya, and 19 people have already been detained in these operations.
No other details of the operations have been reported.
Turkish media reported on Feb. 5, 2014 that in 2011, the telephone conversations of about 7,000 people associated with the representatives of both the ruling and opposition parties, including family members of the prime minister, were wiretapped as part of an anti-terrorist operation carried out by Istanbul prosecutor's office against "Salam" terrorist organization.
During the anti-terrorist operations, telephone conversations of the head of the Turkish intelligence, Hakan Fidan were wiretapped as well.
The then prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Gulen of standing behind the wiretapping of the phone conversations.
Erdogan stressed that the Gulen movement with its anti-state activities proved that it is not a religious movement, but a politicized and illegal structure.
He also called on Fethullah Gulen not to intervene in Turkey's internal affairs and accused the US of supporting him.
Erdogan also previously said that Gulen will be extradited from the US.
However, the US authorities said that an extradition is inadmissible.
Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Ankara would make every effort to achieve the extradition of Gulen.