Turkish officers serving with occupation army arrested and taken to Ankara

Nine colonels of the Turkish army serving with the force occupying the northern part of Cyprus were arrested and taken to Ankara on suspicion of being involved in the July 15 failed coup, Turkish Cypriot media reported on Sunday.

They said the arrests were part of the continued drive against the movement of Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish preacher who lives in exile in the United States, who is accused of having orchestrated the coup, in which about 250 people died.

The nine generals are among top officers of a contingent of about 40,000 troops stationed in the northern part of Cyprus which Turkey occupied in 1974, reacting to a coup organized by the military rulers of Greece.

The Turkish media said the arrested colonels were transferred to Ankara prisons in two military helicopters.

Their offices and houses were searched by military investigators probing involvement in the coup.

They also searched the houses and offices of other officers, military camps and military facilities, the media said, looking for evidence connecting military personnel with the Fethullah Gulen movement.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has said that over 35,000 arrested up to now, of them 10,000 being army personnel, are followers of Gulen, having close ties with his movement. Endit