News / Turkey

Turkey sacks 87 people from spy agency

Tuesday, 27 September 2016 10:16 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 27 September 2016 1:39 PM ]

A file photo of the entrance to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, the MIT, in the capital, Ankara

Turkey has dismissed 87 staff members of the country’s spy agency in its latest instance of purging government employees deemed linked to the failed July 15 coup.

Turkish media reported on Tuesday that those fired were out of the 141 personnel members suspended in an earlier internal probe of the National Intelligence Organization, known as the MIT.

State news agency Anadolu, meanwhile, reported that criminal complaints have been filed against 52 of those who have been sacked.

Anadolu also said that detention warrants had been issued for 121 people for links to the botched coup.

Those wanted for detention included directors of a charity linked to Gulen’s movement. It said police had launched operations in 18 cities to apprehend the suspects.

More than 270 people were killed and above 2,100 others sustained injuries when an army faction launched the putsch, using helicopters and tanks and clashing with government troops and people on the streets of the capital, Ankara, and the city of Istanbul.

Shortly after the coup bid was largely suppressed on July 16, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind it.

Gulen has denied any involvement and warned that the blame game could be a ploy by the ruling Justice and Development Party to cement its grip on power.

The country has so far detained thousands of people for alleged links to the coup. Tens of thousands of people have also been dismissed or suspended from government jobs, including in the military, police, judiciary and the education ministry.

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