US consulate employee arrested as part of Gulen crackdown

The Turkish government has arrested an employee of the US consulate in Istanbul yesterday on terror charges and attempting to overthrow the president and the administration.

Metin Topuz, a Turkish citizen that works at the US consulate in Istanbul, allegedly had links to high-ranking members of the Gulenist movement, including former prosecutors and police chiefs, which led an attempted military coup against the government on 15 July 2016.

The US embassy in the capital Ankara commented, saying that the allegations against Topuz are “wholly without merit” and that the “baseless, anonymous allegations” harm US-Turkish relations.

Following the failed coup attempt last year, Erdogan blamed the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen for causing dissent and has orchestrated a nationwide purge of all institutions, industries and the armed forces of those Gulenist followers who he claims have infiltrated Turkish society. Tens of thousands of arrests have been made so far and are continuing to be made.

Read more: Turkish leader’s security officers charged with assault in Washington

The arrest of the US employee comes weeks after 15 Turkish security officials were indicted by a US court on the charges of attacking peaceful demonstrators outside the Turkish ambassador’s home in Washington during a visit by Erdogan. Erdogan said that the demonstrators, who were supporters of Kurdish independence, were acting aggressively and violently and called the US decision “a clear and scandalous expression of how justice works in America”.