Arrested soldiers who participated in the 2016 attempted coup are accompanied by Turkish gendarmes as they arrive for their trial at Sincan Penal Institution at the 4th Heavy Penal Court near Ankara on Aug. 1, 2017. (AFP photo)
ANKARA, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- If you download a smart phone application called "ByLock," or wear a T-shirt bearing the word "Hero" in Turkey, you would probably find yourself in serious trouble.
Turkish government has made relentless efforts in eradicating the network behind last year's deadly coup attempt, some of which appear to be controversial among the public.
"My father, who has been a police officer for 25 years, was arrested last January because he had reportedly downloaded the ByLock," Teslime, a university student in Ankara, told Xinhua.
The young woman claimed that her father was never a follower of the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who had been accused by the Turkish government of having masterminded the botched coup attempt on the night of July 15, 2016.
Teslime's father is one of the many suspects arrested for charges of terrorism in Turkey, amid the government's firm determinations to wipe out potential supporters of Gulen since the failed coup attempt.
Some 55,000 citizens have been jailed over charges of linking to the reclusive cleric, and 170,000 others were investigated for links to his shadowy group.
Tens of thousands have been sacked from their jobs in the civil service, military, judiciary, academia and media in an ongoing purge that the government insisted is necessary.
"The operations that have been launched against this heinous terrorist organization are important and necessary for the wellbeing of our country. They will go on as long as there are still enemies against the state out there," a source close to the government explained to Xinhua.
"The traitors and their accomplices, who have plotted against the elected government of Turkey and have given orders to fire against innocent people, will be brought to justice; otherwise we cannot reassure the victims' families. We have to do it," he added.
The latest arrests on Tuesday included Turkey's former national football team player Omer Catkic, for alleged links to Gulen as he was found using the ByLock, reported state-run Anadolu Agency.
According to Turkish authorities, ByLock, the patent holder of which is a Turkish American, was used by supporters of Gulen to create a network across the country.
Detailed investigations have provided the government with over 100,000 names within the preacher's network, according to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority.
It is unknown whether the coup was planned on ByLock, but authorities said a large number of people identified via ByLock were directly involved in the coup attempt and had used it during the night of the infamous attempt.
Actions against Gulen supporters have also gone international, as Turkish government has demanded the extradition of "terror suspects" with foreign citizenships.
Dogan Akhanli, a 60-year-old Turkish-German writer, has been detained in Spain while on a vacation last Saturday, before he was released Sunday.
Hundreds accused of links to the preacher fled abroad while Turkey's extradition pleas have fallen on deaf ears especially by European countries. NATO ally the United States also has, until now, refused to deliver Turkey's "enemy number one."
Some Asian and African countries have shut down schools linked to Gulen, but the reluctance and criticism stemming from Europe towards the massive purge have caused an eerie anti-Western sentiment in Turkish authorities.
"The external powers have some agenda for Turkey. They aim to divide Turkey using terror groups," Erdogan said recently, referring to Western powers that infuriated him by not responding to his country's call for labeling the Gulen network as a terrorist group.
Some individuals have been arrested for wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Hero" printed on the front over charges of propaganda for Gulen, after a suspected coup plotter who had attempted to assassinate Erdogan was found wearing a similar outfit as a symbol of sympathy for the putschists.
Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul has insisted that the judiciary did not intent to "victimize" people wearing these T-shirts.
"We are careful about not victimizing people," he said, adding that two people who wore such T-shirts had been cleared of links with Gulen and had been released immediately.
