Prosecutors issued detention warrants for 37 people, including owners, executives and teachers of Akıllı Colleges, a chain of private schools based in the capital Ankara for their links to Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). Fifteen were detained when Daily Sabah went to print.

Authorities said school chain's owner İdris Yurteri was a user of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app exclusively used and believed to be developed by FETÖ which is blamed for the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. Yurteri also had ties to Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, a brigadier general sentenced to life for an assassination attempt targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the putsch bid. Media outlets reported that the investigation showed Yurteri stayed at the same hotel with Sönmezateş in the western city of Afyon in 2012.

Police searched schools in 12 districts of Ankara while a court ordered a freeze on the handover of schools during the legal procedures.