Turkish police have detained the editor and several writers of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet amid a crackdown on media after the failed July coup.<br/><br/>The journalists are suspected of links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of plotting the coup, as well as Kurdish militants. Cumhuriyet is Turkey's oldest secular paper.<br/><br/>At the weekend, 15 other media outlets were closed and 10,000 civil servants were dismissed. Those targeted include academics, teachers, health workers, prison guards and forensics experts.<br/><br/>Critics have accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of using an emergency law imposed after the coup attempt to silence opponents. Since then, a total of about 1.1 lakh people have been sacked or suspended and 37,000 arrested.<br/><br/>The government argues that Mr Gulen's network of followers is so vast that a wholesale purge is needed.

Turkish police have detained the editor and several writers of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet amid a crackdown on media after the failed July coup. <br/><br/>The journalists are suspected of links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of plotting the coup, as well as Kurdish militants. Cumhuriyet is Turkey's oldest secular paper.<br/><br/> At the weekend, 15 other media outlets were closed and 10,000 civil servants were dismissed. Those targeted include academics, teachers, health workers, prison guards and forensics experts.<br/><br/>Critics have accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of using an emergency law imposed after the coup attempt to silence opponents. Since then, a total of about 1.1 lakh people have been sacked or suspended and 37,000 arrested. <br/><br/>The government argues that Mr Gulen's network of followers is so vast that a wholesale purge is needed.