Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 35 employees of media groups over allegedly using the smartphone application ByLock, used almost exclusively by the followers of the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.
Nine people have been detained so far. Those detained so far include Burak Ekici, a journalist working for the opposition leftist opposition Birgun newspaper.
Gülen, an Islamic preacher who lives in the US state of Pennsylvania, had been a close ally of the then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, helping him to redesign and install his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) in power in 2002.
