Turkish authorities announced on Tuesday that they had arrested 27 people, including previously discharged soldiers, suspected of links to the cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of masterminding a 2016 coup attempt, AFP and Agerpres reported.

The 27 people, including a general and two army officers who have already become victims of the purge after the failed coup, were arrested in Ankara and Istanbul, and seven more people are still wanted, reports the Turkish Anadolu Agency.

The operation, carried out in five Turkish provinces, targets military personnel and judges who are close to or sympathize with the “Fetö terrorist organization”, the regime’s acronym for Fethullah Gulen’s movement.

A previous raid in October led to the arrest of more than 700 people suspected of involvement in the financial activities of the Fetö movement.

In December 2013, while Erdogan was still prime minister, Turkish authorities accused Fethullah Gulen, once a valued Erdogan ally who had lived in the US for more than 20 years, of spreading corruption allegations against his government.

President Erdogan considers Fethullah Gülen, who is now 81 years old, the initiator of the coup attempt in July 2016. Since then, Turkish authorities have made more than 300,000 arrests, mostly in the ranks of the police, judiciary and army. as well as among intellectuals and journalists.

Turkey is asking Sweden and Finland to extradite pro-Gülen fighters living on their territory, making the extradition a condition for the Turkish parliament to ratify the two northern countries’ accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.