Turkey suspends 500+ military officers over coup
Turkey has suspended more than 500 military staff over their alleged role in the mid-July coup attempt.
Defense Minister Fikri Isik said on Wednesday that a total of 113 personnel from the navy, and 427 from the air force had been temporarily suspended over suspected ties to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric whom Turkey accuses of orchestrating the abortive coup on July 15, which left more than 270 people dead.
Isik said 368 of the suspended personnel were officers, without elaborating on the ranks of others.
Turkey on Tuesday suspended 12,801 police officers from duty, 2,523 of them police chiefs, saying they were suspected of having ties to Gulen and his network.
Since the coup was declared over on July 16, Turkey began a harsh crackdown on those believed to have played a role in the attempt. Reports say about 100,000 people have been discharged or suspended from their jobs. The government, which carries out the dismissals under a state of emergency declared in the wake of the coup, says the measure is of a precautionary nature and is intended to stop suspects from interfering with the official investigation.
Ankara also defends the move by saying that the suspended personnel will receive two thirds of their salary.
Western governments and major human rights campaigners have censured Ankara’s crackdown, saying the Turkish government has acted beyond the rule of law in its hunt for coup plotters.
The opposition has fiercely criticized the widening crackdown, with Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party, also known as the CHP, saying last week that Turkey had been turned into a “semi-open” prison following the start of the coup-related crackdown.
Ignoring those calls, the government on Tuesday extended for another three months the state of emergency starting October 19.
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