Former rector held in Turkey's Gulen probe

CANAKKALE, Turkey

Former rector of Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Sedat Laciner has been detained in northwestern Turkey’s Canakkale province in connection with a probe into the parallel state group, police sources said Saturday.

According to the sources, police launched an operation at different addresses in the province early morning and detained 28 people, including Laciner and many other businessmen.

There are 18 more suspects on police's wanted list.

The suspects are all alleged to be part of a “parallel state” conspiracy headed by Fetullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Islamic preacher who runs a network of schools and commercial enterprises in Turkey and around the world.

The parallel state, known also by the initials FETO/PDY, is supposedly a clandestine group of Turkish bureaucrats and senior officials, allegedly embedded in the country’s institutions, including the judiciary and the police.

Since early 2014, investigations into the parallel state have seen hundreds of civil servants, including police and public prosecutors, arrested or reassigned.