He said these operations are legally justifiable and will continue.
Earlier, some Turkish media outlets reported that the operations conducted against the supporter’s Gulen movement in Turkey is the government’s revenge for the wiretapping of the state officials.
Turkish police detained the editor-in-chief of Zaman newspaper Ekrem Dumanli on Dec.14. Moreover, several employees of the newspaper and Samanyolu TV company were detained on suspicion of being involved in Gulen movement. Aside from Dumanli, over 20 people, whose names are not disclosed, were detained. EU and the US criticized these arrests.
Turkish media reported on Feb. 25 that in 2011 telephone conversations of about 7,000 people associated with the representatives of both the ruling and opposition parties, including family members of the PM were wiretapped, as part of the anti-terrorist operation carried out by the Istanbul prosecutor`s office against Salam terrorist organization.
During the anti-terrorist operations, telephone conversations of the head Turkish intelligence, Hakan Fidan was wiretapped as well.
After this, Turkish then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Gulen as the representative of his movement of standing behind the wiretapping of the phone conversations.
Erdogan also stressed that Gulen`s movement (which he earlier called as a `parallel structure`) with its anti-state activities proved that it is not a religious movement, but a politicized and illegal structure.
He called on Fethullah Gulen not to intervene in Turkey`s internal affairs and accused the US of supporting him.
A criminal case has been initiated in Turkey against Gulen for his coup attempt and espionage against the country.
Erdogan also previously said that Gulen will be extradited from the US. However, the US authorities said that his extradition is inadmissible.
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