Turkey seeks 30,000 new soldiers

Turkey is seeking to recruit more than 30,000 new personnel over the next four years, a Defense Ministry official said on Wednesday, to help plug staff shortages after widespread purges following a failed coup.
The 30,159 new personnel will be admitted into the armed forces through the naval and army military academies, while the rest will be employed as officials, sergeants and in other posts, the official said.
A Turkish military spokeswoman confirmed new personnel would be hired, though she could not confirm the number. The armed forces said in an e-mail that it currently employs nearly 360,000 military personnel.
Ankara accuses the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating the July 15 coup bid, in which rogue soldiers commandeered tanks, fighter jets and helicopters to attack the parliament and attempt to overthrow the government.
Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied involvement and condemned the coup.
The need to replenish military ranks comes at a time when Turkey is fighting, both inside and outside its borders, Daesh militants and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is deemed a terrorist group by the European Union, United States and Ankara.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the armed forces are aiming to recruit 30,159 personnel in order to meet needs in the aftermath of the post-coup dismissals.
This would include 1,322 officers, 3,547 non-commissoned officers, 7,159 trained soldiers, and 11,907 contracted soldiers, according to the news report.
The Turkish authorities have repeatedly insisted that the purge in the army after the coup has not affected its operations, pointing to the launch of the Syria incursion just over a month after the failed putsch.
But analysts have said that the effect on the military has been severe, with a shortage of pilots particularly acute.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in an interview in August that Turkey was in need of military pilots and this is “not something that can be done in a day.”

Source: Arab News