Turkish police arrest 100 'parallel state' suspects

Prosecutors announced on Monday that Turkish police have arrested 100 people suspected of being members of a "parallel state" in operations against members of the Gulen movement, a group the state considers to be a terrorist organisation.

The operations were launched in Istanbul and nine other provinces across Turkey.

The arrests came after the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued arrest warrants for 140 people as part of an investigation into around 40 million Turkish liras ($14 million) provided to the Gulenist organisation between 2004 and 2015.

The Gulenists are followers of Fethullah Gulen, a former imam from Turkey who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States.

Turkey's National Security Council considers the Gulenists a major threat as they are trying to set-up a so-called parallel state composed of a network of followers who have allegedly infiltrated the judiciary, police force, and other state agencies to control these institutions.

The investigation against the Gulenists was launched after the group tried to overthrow Turkey's elected government in a so-called judicial coup in 2014.

Since then, investigations into the parallel state have seen hundreds of civil servants, including police and public prosecutors, arrested or reassigned.