Education Minister Ismet Yilmaz said the new teachers will replace state educators who have been dismissed as well as teachers in private schools with alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, a USA -based cleric who has denied Turkish accusations that he directed the coup attempt that killed about 290 people.
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Gulen is the exiled cleric that has been named by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the chief plotter in last week’s failed military coup. Among possible charges that could be brought against him is membership of a terrorist organization.
Turkey has imposed a three-month state of emergency and detained or dismissed tens of thousands of people in the military, the judiciary, the education system and other institutions.
More than 9,000 soldiers have been arrested since the coup.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew met Simsek at the G-20 and said in a statement afterward that the U.S. supports Turkey’s elected government.
Turkey today pushed with a sweeping crackdown against suspects accused of taking part in the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, extending police powers to hold people in detention and shuttering over 1,000 private schools.
Gulen and his supporters have said the government is using the state of emergency “to solidify his power and persecute his critics”.
A state of emergency was declared on Wednesday, allowing the president and cabinet to bypass parliament when drafting new laws and to restrict or suspend rights and freedoms.
In his decree, Erdogan extended to a maximum of 30 days from four days the period in which some suspects can be detained.
Kodalak told the Turkish Anadolu news agency: “Those Turkish soldiers were not involved in the coup attempt”.
A week after renegade soldiers tried to oust him with guns, tanks and F16s, Erdogan’s government has detained over 12,000 people it suspects are state enemies, including nearly 300 officers of the guard shielding his Ankara palace. He has clamped down on the media, put journalists in jail, undermined the independence of State institutions, squashed street protests and was willing to provoke Nationalist sentiment against the Kurds for electoral gain.
According to the Turkish presidency, the decree published Saturday will close 1,043 schools, 1,229 charities and foundations, 19 unions, 15 universities and 35 medical institutions.
Parliament must still approve the decree but requires only a simply majority, which the government has.
According to the authorities, over 12,000 people have been detained – mainly soldiers but also police, judges, teachers and civil servants.
Conkar stated that Turkish police and public prosecutors quickly took necessary precautions to block the attempt in a short time. However, strong concern has also been expressed over the extent of the subsequent purges of state institutions.
And Ankara knows that overstepping democratic principles during these exceptional times could pose another threat, this time to Turkey’s foreign relations.
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Bilateral relations were already strained over USA support of a Syrian Kurdish militant group that Turkey considers a terrorist organization.
