{"id":145833,"date":"2026-08-14T12:01:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/145833\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T12:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:01:24","slug":"turkey-detains-30-in-raids-targeting-religious-group-that-has-been-in-crosshairs-of-pro-govt-circles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/145833\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey detains 30 in raids targeting religious group that has been in crosshairs of pro-gov\u2019t circles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turkish police on Thursday detained 30 people during raids conducted in 17 provinces against a religious group known as \u201cS\u00fcleymanc\u0131lar\u201d and who identify themselves as \u201cS\u00fcleymanl\u0131lar,\u201d which has been targeted for months by politicians and media figures close to the government.<\/p>\n

Interior Minister Mustafa \u00c7ift\u00e7i said three people being sought were abroad and 10 others were still at large.<\/p>\n

The investigation involves charges of establishing and leading a criminal organization, membership in a criminal organization, laundering criminal proceeds, defrauding public institutions and violations of the Tax Procedure Law. The police conducted searches and seizures at 43 locations belonging to individuals and at 80 locations associated with 33 companies.<\/p>\n

The S\u00fcleymanl\u0131lar group, founded by followers of Islamic scholar S\u00fcleyman Hilmi Tunahan, is one of the religious organizations in Turkey that operates through Quranic schools and student dormitories. Alihan Kuri\u015f, who is among the detainees, took over leadership of the group in 2016. The group also carries out activities outside Turkey, particularly through associations and educational institutions in Germany.<\/p>\n

The operation came following longstanding calls for the Turkish government to take legal action against the group. Fatih S\u00fcleyman Denizolgun, the grandson of S\u00fcleyman Hilmi Tunahan and a former Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker, had called on the government in 2024 to carry out a \u201cfinancial operation\u201d against companies, foundations, and associations linked to the group.<\/p>\n

Denizolgun later claimed that Ali Erba\u015f, then-president of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, told him that President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan had issued an order to conduct an operation against the S\u00fcleymanl\u0131lar group. The Directorate of Religious Affairs denied the allegation.<\/p>\n

Denizolgun\u2019s claim that the judiciary is taking orders from Erdo\u011fan is in tandem with concerns about judicial independence in Turkey. In its 2025 report, the European Commission stated that the judiciary remains \u201cunder the control of the executive\u201d and selectively targets the opposition, journalists, civil society and human rights defenders.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, after Erdo\u011fan spoke of a \u201cshadowy organization\u201d that he said extended into the bureaucracy, the business world, the media, and \u201ccertain religious communities,\u201d pro-government writer Fuat U\u011fur wrote that \u201cit\u2019s the S\u00fcleymanc\u0131lar\u2019s turn\u201d following the faith-based G\u00fclen movement, which has been the target of a government crackdown that saw tens of thousands jailed over more than a decade. Shortly after U\u011fur\u2019s remarks were published, four individuals alleged to be linked to the group were taken into custody.<\/p>\n

This article is republished from\u00a0Turkish Minute<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkish police on Thursday detained 30 people during raids conducted in 17 provinces against a religious group known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[69447,69448,53952,69449,69450,31758,429,131,69451,69452,69453,132,155],"class_list":["post-145833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-ali-erbas","tag-alihan-kuris","tag-criminal-organization","tag-fatih-suleyman-denizolgun","tag-fuat-ugur","tag-interior-minister-mustafa-ciftci","tag-oppression","tag-stockholm","tag-suleyman-hilmi-tunahan","tag-suleymancilar","tag-suleymanlilar","tag-sweden","tag-turkey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117093760601524236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}