President Erdogan: Orders arrests, detentions of hundreds of citizens after failed coup plot

Turkish police said that it has detained 112 businessmen in several provinces on Wednesday, accusing them all of having links to a U.S.-based cleric the government blames for the July 15 coup attempt.

It was the latest set of raids in Turkey, where more than 16,000 people have been formally arrested since the failed putsch.

More than 60,000 civil servants have been suspended and some sacked and 21,000 teachers lost their licences in the purges.

The government said that all those affected have ties to Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish-born cleric living in self imposed exile in the U.S.

Since 2013, the government accuses Gulen of running a “parallel state” by placing his followers in the state bureaucracy. Gulen denies all charges.