ANKARA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Friday issued an arrest warrant for 19 suspected former police chiefs over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016, the capital Ankara chief prosecutor's office said.
The operation has been carried out in 12 provinces as part of an investigation against the "Gulen movement," which the Turkish government accuses of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and then attempting a coup on July 15, 2016.
The statement said all of the suspects were former first-class police chiefs who were dismissed from public service and were stripped of their ranks.
The examination of historical traffic search (HTS), which reveals a person's cell phone records, indicated the suspects communicated many times with high-level members of the organization, said the statement.
The prosecutor also said the presence of testimonies showed that they were members of the organization.
In a separate operation based on the northwestern Balikesir province, 16 other suspects with alleged links to the group were detained, the state-run TRT broadcaster reported on Friday.
