ANKARA, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Police rounded up 544 suspects across Türkiye over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016, the country's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday.
Turkish police carried out simultaneous raids across 62 provinces in an operation named "Kiskac (Pinch)-15," Yerlikaya said in a post on social media platform X, without specifying the timing of the operation.
The raids targeted individuals suspected of being recruited by the network at different levels of the state apparatus, he said.
The suspects were allegedly instructed by the network to participate in state institution entrance exams, said Yerlikaya.
The Turkish government has accused the Gulen movement, led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, of infiltrating state institutions and masterminding the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, which claimed the lives of at least 250 people.
After the coup attempt, the Turkish government has launched a massive crackdown on individuals suspected of having ties to the network. ■