Police say they were rounded up on suspicion of having relation to the what the National Security Council says serious threat to the nation's security
A total of 18 people have been detained in the government's ongoing nationwide crackdown against those suspected of being linked to the parallel state, or moslty known as the Fethullah Gulen terrorist organisation.
The police raids were carried out across the provinces of Manisa, Aydın, Van, Amasya, Erzurum, Malatya, Balıkesir and Denizli as part of an investigation, led by the Manisa chief public prosecutor's office.
Suspects including teachers and police officers are accused of funding the Gülen-led terrorist organisation. They were held at their own residential addressess and taken to the Manisa police department.
20 people, suspected of funding Gülen's illicit group, were held by officers at their residential addresses during the previous police operations conducted across five provinces on May 17. 15 of them were arrested while the remaining five were released on judicial control.
The parallel state, led by US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, is an outlawed organisation, whose loyalists hold key positions in state institutions such as the police and and the judiciary. With the support of his followers, Gülen has attempted to overthrow the democratically-elected government in a civil coup, mostly known as the December 17 raids.
In the aftermath of coup attempt in late 2013, an investigation has been launched against Gülen's shadowy organization. Since then, thousands of officers have been fired on charges of serving Gulen's terrorist organization while several prosecutors and judges have been removed from their posts for exceeding the power vested in them, to support the illegal organization.
His organisation has been labelled as a national security threat by the National Security Council (MGK). The Security Council has called on the government to label the self-exiled Turkish cleric's dissident group a serious threat to national security in the Red Book, widely known to be the country's secret constitution.
Gülen, wanted on terror charges in Turkey, has been living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999.
