Turkish police arrive at the headquarters of Zaman newspaper (AFP Photo)
Turkish police on Sunday launched a sweeping operation to arrest dozens of supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rival, US-exiled imam Fethullah Gulen, including a raid on the offices of the Zaman daily, which is close to the cleric.
The operation came just two days after Erdogan signalled a new crackdown against the "evil forces" of Gulen, whom the president accused of orchestrating a corruption probe a year ago against members of his inner circle.
Police conducted raids in several cities across Turkey, including Istanbul, and detained at least 24 people including a top executive of a television channel close to Gulen, as well as a director, producers and scriptwriters, state-run Anatolia news agency said.
Arrest warrants were issued for a total of 32 people, including Ekrem Dumanli, the chief editor of Zaman, the country's top-selling newspaper.
Erdogan said Friday he would "pursue them (Gulen supporters) in their lairs".
"We are not just faced with a simple network, but one which is a pawn of evil forces at home and abroad," he said. "We will go into their lairs again. Whoever is beside them and behind them, we will bring down this network and bring it to account."
Gulen, 73, is the spiritual leader of the Hizmet movement, which controls media outlets, schools and culture centres and was a key backer of Erdogan before falling out with him over the government's plans to shut down his schools.
Hizmet has denied being behind the corruption probe, which dragged down four ministers and prompted a cabinet shake-up, posing the most serious challenge to Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government since it came to power in 2002.
On Sunday a huge crowd gathered outside Zaman's offices on the outskirts of Istanbul, preventing the police from entering the building to make any arrests.
"The free press cannot be silenced," the crowd chanted, as Dumanli taunted the police, challenging them to come and arrest him.
"The person to be detained is waiting here. Please come and get me. I'm waiting for you here," Dumanli said.
Anatolia reported that the suspects are accused of a number of offences including "forming a gang to try and seize state sovereignty."
As in almost all the previous raids -- which targetted mostly police officers suspected of backing Gulen -- the details of the swoop were leaked by a mysterious Twitter user named Fuat Avni before it was even carried out.
Last week Fuat Avni, believed to a government official, warned his supporters that police were set to detain some 400 people, including 150 journalists. Late Saturday, he went on to publish the names of those journalists, some of whom were among those rounded up.
RAIDS AMOUNT TO 'COUP'Main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu denounced the operation as "a coup" that "we cannot accept under any circumstances."
"The process that we are going through is not something faced in healthy democracies. This is a coup process," he told reporters, vowing to be on the side of the victims.
In an apparent reference to Gulen supporters, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday: "Today is a day of test. Everyone will pay for what they have done and their anti-democratic behaviour."
The swoop was the latest in a series of raids since July against Gulen supporters as the government cracks down on what Erdogan has described as a "parallel state" within the security forces seeking to topple his government.
It came a year after the vast corruption probe was launched on December 17, 2013, that saw the arrests of dozens of leading businessmen and political figures close to Erdogan -- then prime minister.
The president, accused by critics of becoming increasingly authoritarian, managed to stall the investigation by sacking thousands of police and scores of judges and pushing through laws tightening state control over the judiciary and the Internet.