Police detain 39 municipality staff in Turkish capital over Gülen links 

Police on May 24 detained 39 municipality staff working for local governments in Ankara over their alleged use of ByLock, an encrypted messaging application linked to the Gülen movement, which is accused of perpetrating the July 2016 coup attempt.    

Earlier, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office had issued detention warrants for a total of 79 municipality staff.

Sixty of the staff work at Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, while the other 19 work at district municipalities, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.

Some 23 of the suspects include municipal staff who were previously dismissed from their duties, the agency reported.

Separately, the Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office also issued detention warrants for another 60 suspects, 30 of whom were former staff of the Development Ministry while the others were from the Education Ministry.

Police later detained some 21 suspects during operations.