Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey has been searching for leaders of nationwide
protests.

Turkish police have been ordered to find and arrest suspected organizers
of the nationwide protests against the government of Prime Minister Recep
Erdogan. On July 11, police raided the homes of suspected protest organizers
in such cities as Bursa, Izmir and Manisa.

“There is an effort to find and arrest the leaders of these protests,” an official said. “In the beginning, we saw these protests as locally-organized, but now they seem to be directed from some sort of national command.”

Officials said at least 15 suspected protest leaders were arrested in mid-July. They said they were believed to have formed a national network linked by such social media as Facebook and Twitter.

Erdogan has used the intelligence community in the crackdown on the protest movement.

Officials said intelligence agencies were monitoring the social media, e-mail and the Internet to determine protest plans as well as their organizers.

Officials said many of the protests were believed to have been planned
in Turkish universities. They said the government has ordered police to raid
campuses in the current crackdown.

“We will place in state universities the state-owned security forces
instead of private security,” Erdogan said on July 12. “Seeing that there
were very different things has pushed us to further responsibility.”

Erdogan has also used legislation to neutralize anti-government forces.
One new bill has targeted unions that supported demonstrations against the
prime minister.

  arrest protest organizers, Bursa, Izmir, Manisa, Recep Erdogan, Turkish police ordered to track down