Turkish police raid 44 companies in probe into failed coup

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkey’s state-run news agency says police have launched simultaneous raids on 44 companies suspected of providing financial support to US -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen’s movement.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan alleges Gulen has built a network of schools, charities and businesses in Turkey and overseas over the decades in order to infiltrate the state and create a “parallel structure” with which to take over the country.

Turkish officials have said that finally the U.S.is sending “positive signals” on the extradition of cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara said engineered the July 15 coup attempt.

Of those, 136 were detained in Monday’s raids. The agency did not identify the companies searched.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim addresses the media in Ankara. “This is through an objective and fair trial”. Parliament was bombed, while Erdogan escaped an attack on his hotel at a seaside resort.

Security officers monitor during the Democracy and Martyrs Rally, organized by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and supported by ruling AK Party (AKP), oppositions Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), to protest against last month’s failed military coup attempt, in Istanbul, Turkey, August 7, 2016.

Some 35,000 people have been detained for questioning and more than 17,000 of them have been formally arrested to face trial, including soldiers, police, judges and journalists. He denies any involvement.

Turkey purged tens of thousands of Gulen’s suspected followers from the armed forces after the failed coup as well as suspected followers from other state institutions, the media and academia.