Turkey dumps 8,000 security personnel in latest purge

This round-up also removed 520 people from religious affairs directorate and 543 judicial workers

Ankara: As Turkey continues its purge of those suspected of links to the failed July 15 coup, state media said yesterday that it had removed nearly 8,000 security personnel from duty.

Smoke rises close to Turkish-Syrian border town of Karkamis and Jarabulus on Thursday, even as Turkey denies US claim that it has agreed to a truce with a Kurdish militia. Pic/AFP

A total of 7,669 police were removed along with 323 personnel in the gendarmerie, which looks after domestic security, late yesterday.

Turkey has accused US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of ordering and conducting the failed putsch, which left 240 dead, but Gulen strongly denies all accusations.

Turkey embarked on an all-out purge of state bodies in the wake of the coup to rid the country of what Erdogan calls the "virus" of Gulen's influence.

The latest purge was not just limited to the security forces. Nearly 520 people were also removed from the religious affairs directorate.

Yesterday, 543 prosecutors and judges had been dismissed as part of the investigation into those linked to the movement, bringing the total of those removed from the judiciary to 3,390.

Another 820 military personnel — not including generals or admirals — were dismissed, the defence ministry said earlier yesterday, with 648 of those under arrest.

PM Binali Yildirim said last month that 40,000 people had been detained with more than 20,000 remanded in custody. Nearly 80,000 civil servants have been suspended, he said, while around 5,000 have been dismissed.

4,451
Total military personnel dismissed till date

151
Generals and admirals who have been removed

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