ANKARA, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police detained 97 suspects over the past week in 39 operations against the Gulen movement, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Sunday.

Yerlikaya said on social media platform X that of those suspects held across the country, 16 were formally arrested and 27 placed under judicial control.

Since the current cabinet took office in June 2023, 19,025 individuals suspected of ties to the group were detained and 3,512 formally arrested, according to the Turkish minister.

Ankara designates the Gulen movement a terrorist group and blames it for a failed coup in July 2016 in which at least 250 people were killed. The movement was led by cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lived in the United States from 1999 until his death in 2024. ■