World Bulletin / News Desk

Twenty-five people – including 20 police chiefs and officers – have been detained across Turkey in another “parallel state” operation.

Ankara chief prosecutor on Monday ordered the detention of a total of 34 individuals, including seveal police chiefs, over the illegal wiretapping of government officials.

Simultaneous operations were organized in 16 Turkish provinces, including Ankara, linked to illegal wiretapping between 2007 and 2011 in police departments.

Security forces are searching for the remaining seven suspects; two are already in custody on separate charges.

The Turkish government has vowed to crackdown on the so-called "parallel state" since a graft probe targeted Turkish cabinet members in December 2013. The current Turkish government claims it was a coup attempt.

The "parallel state" is an alleged group of Turkish bureaucrats and senior officials embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and the police, which is allegedly trying to undermine the Turkish government.

Since the December 2013 graft probes, many police chiefs and thousands of officers have been relocated to different cities, and the top judicial body has been restructured.

Seventeen of today’s 34 suspects are police commissioners while three of them are police officers.

A fortnight ago, two judges were detained on charges of attempting to overthrow or disable the state after they appeared to give a green light to a move that would, if successful, have resulted in the release of dozens of "parallel state" suspects, including the manager of a pro-Gulen Turkish television network.

Government officials have accused the "parallel state" of being made up of followers of U.S.-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen.

The 2013 investigations were based on wiretapped recordings of phone conversations and confidential meetings of government officials.

Later recordings which were leaked online included private family conversations of then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a top-level security meeting attended by then Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Chief of Staff Necdet Ozel.