Update 4 - Turkish Police Raid Koza Ipek Conglomerate

A counter-terrorism investigation was launched Tuesday into Koza Ipek Holding, a conglomerate with interests in the media, energy, construction and mining, police said.



The group of 23 companies is accused of providing financial support to and disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization, a police source said on condition of anonymity.



Seven people have been arrested and an arrest warrant issued for Akin Ipek, the group's chairman, who the source said was thought to be in the U.K.



Those arrested in Ankara were released on Wednesday after being questioned by a prosecutor but there were 17 arrests in Istanbul, as police from the Directorate of Counter-Financial Crimes Branch raided a business center in the Uskudar district.



Police from Ankara's organized crimes branch carried out raids across the capital on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the corporation's alleged links to what officials describe as the Gulenist Terror Organization -- the movement led by U.S.-based Turkish preacher Fetullah Gulen that the government accuses of plotting to overthrow the Turkish state.



During searches police confiscated documents and computers.



Sources at the Ankara prosecutor's office told Anadolu Agency the raids had not targeted any of Koza Ipek's media holdings. Newspapers owned by the group said the raids were carried out on the "Ipek Media Group" but did not specify the offices of individual news outlets.



However, opposition groups linked the raids to a clampdown on opposition media in the run-up to the Nov. 1 general election.



Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said: "You cannot talk about democracy in a country where the media is silenced."



He added: "I invite the government to be careful, consistent and not to embarrass us in front of the world."



Devlet Bahceli, head of Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), warned: "Actions that are causing anxiety to capital holders are being carried out, just like the great pressure on the press that has happened for a long time in Turkey."



In a statement published in the group's Bugun newspaper on Monday, Ipek said that his companies were being audited by the Finance Ministry's Financial Crimes Investigation Board. "There can be no basis for even a fictional crime scenario regarding our group," he said.



On Tuesday, he confirmed the raids on company offices and his home. "I do not even have any traffic offense," he said. He made no comment on his location.



However, sources told Anadolu Agency that Ipek had left Turkey two days before the investigation was launched against his companies. His private jet reportedly touched down at London Luton Airport late Sunday.



Koza Ipek was founded in 1948 by Akin Ipek's father Ali as a printing company. Among its media holdings are the Bugun and Kanalturk television stations and daily newspapers Bugun and Millet.



Concerns about the Gulen movement, which the government accuses of infiltrating state institutions, stem from recordings that surfaced in December 2013 that led to corruption investigations against former senior government figures. - Ankara