Turkey dismisses over 8,000 in new wave of post-coup purges

Turkey on Saturday ordered the dismissal of almost 8,400 civil servants and the closure of more than 80 associations, including sports clubs, in the latest round of purges after the July failed coup.

More than 100,000 people have already been suspended or sacked in a purge of anyone suspected of having links to the coup plotters, and the crackdown shows no signs of easing. According to three new decrees published within the state of emergency imposed after the coup, 8,390 more civil servants are to lose their jobs from 63 different state institutions.

They include 2,687 police officers, 1,699 civil servants from the justice ministry, 838 health officials and hundreds of employees from other ministries.

Another 631 academics and eight members of the Council of State were also dismissed.

The dismissals are authorised by the cabinet and require no parliamentary approval under the state of emergency, which has twice been extended and is now due to last until April 19. But its scope has been vehemently criticised by the European Union and human rights activists.

The three decrees published in the Official Gazette also ordered the closure of 83 associations accused of "activities affecting the security of the state".

These include eight sports clubs, mainly from the Kurdish-dominated south-east of the country.

The purge, through sackings and the arrest of some 41,000 people was instigated to root out followers of the cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is based in the US. The government claims he orchestrated the coup attempt that killed nearly 270 people. Mr Gulen denies any involvement.

Then the purge expanded to include ties to other "terror organisations," including alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party or the PKK, which Turkey and its allies, including the US, regard as a terrorist organisation. In November, nine parliamentarians from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, including its co-presidents, were arrested for alleged ties to the PKK. The HDP denies the accusation and critics see the arrests as a means to silence the opposition. The first trials in what is the biggest legal process in the country’s history have only just begun. The first verdicts arriving from coup trials came on January 5 in Erzurum, eastern Turkey, when two army officers were sentenced to life.

One of the emergency decrees stipulates that Turkish citizens abroad who do not respond to a summons to testify as part the coup investigation may lose their citizenship.

Meanwhile, police are also authorised to access the identity of internet subscribers to investigate online crimes.

Critics have claimed that the crackdown goes well beyond those suspected of plotting the coup and targets anyone who has dared show opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But Turkey insists that all those under investigation will have a fair hearing. Under the latest decrees, 276 previously dismissed people were allowed to return to work after being cleared of suspicion.

The state of emergency has also forced the closure of nearly 140 media organs, and 115 journalists were imprisoned, including the investigative journalist and critic of the government, Ahmet Sil. . The latest decrees said 11 media organisations mainly from the south-east — could now reopen.

source: The National