Of the military personnel whose discharge was announced on Wednesday, 149 were generals and admirals, the government official said.
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Turkey’s main opposition leader on Tuesday called for the extradition of Pennsylvania-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, accused of being the mastermind behind the deadly July 15 coup attempt.
The swoop on newspaper staff came after authorities on Monday issued another 42 arrest warrants for journalists, including prominent veteran reporters.
In a symbol of the military’s waning power in Turkey after the coup, the meeting will be symbolically held at the Cankaya Palace of the Turkish premier in Ankara and not, as is customary, at military headquarters.
Turkey says 8,651 members, or 1.5%, of the nation’s armed forces took part in the failed coup on 15 July.
The authorities ordered the closure of several media outlets soon after the attempted coup.
A police crackdown on demonstrations in 2013 that began as a protest against the urban development of Istanbul’s Gezi Park killed a dozen people and undermined Turkey’s credentials as a stable democracy.
Officials are reporting that over 100 media outlets have been closed over ties to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, including 45 daily newspapers and 16 television stations.
Citing intelligence reports, Turkey’s justice minister said on Thursday that Gulen, once a powerful ally of Erdogan, could flee his residence in the usa state of Pennsylvania.
Separately, landline operator Turk Telekom, which is 30 percent state-owned, sacked 198 people on Friday in “cooperation with the security forces” and said some managers had been summoned by prosecutors for testimony in connection with the coup investigation, according to e-mailed statements.
Turmoil in Turkey’s armed forces raises questions about its ability to contain the Islamic State threat in neighbouring Syria and the renewed Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, military analysts say.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag also said that Turkey is receiving intelligence that Gulen might flee the U.S.
“Turkish people are appalled at the U.S.’s insistence in harboring him”, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote in an op-ed published on Al Jazeera’s website on July 26.
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On Wednesday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US sees “a troubling trend in Turkey where official bodies, law enforcement and judicial, are being used to discourage legitimate political discourse”, reports Reuters.
