ISTANBUL, June 23, 2018 (News Wires) - Turkish police have detained 47 people in an operation targeting alleged supporters within the army of a network accued by Ankara of orchestrating a failed military coup two years ago, private broadcaster CNN Turk said Saturday. The operation, which began on Tuesday, targeted 124 people accused of being followers of US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, CNN Turk said. Ankara accuses Gulen of being behind the abortive putsch on July 15, 2016, a charge he denies. The suspects were said to have operated as religious guides for high-ranking military personnel, it said. The operation, which focused on the central Turkish city of Konya and was spread over 31 provinces, comes ahead of Sunday's presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey. Turkey has detained 160,000 people and dismissed nearly the same number of state employees since the coup attempt, the UN human rights office said in March. Of that number, more than 50,000 have been formally charged and kept in jail during trial.