The number of public sector workers removed from their posts since the coup attempt is now more than 66,000, including about 43,000 people in education, Anadolu reported on Friday.
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Erdogan’s two-fisted response to the coup has put many of his Western allies on edge.
The night-time operation used drones and helicopters to pinpoint the location of the men, the official said, adding that authorities had been notified by a group of local villagers who had been hunting boars.
More than 50,000 people have lost their jobs nationwide and more than 18,000 have been detained since the coup, in which rebel soldiers battled Erdogan loyalists in the streets in a night of intense fighting that left almost 300 dead and thousands injured.
With mass purges of suspected Gulen supporters well underway in all state institutions, the media and some private companies, the Turkish Football Federation said on Sunday all its affiliated boards had resigned for the sake of “security checks”.
The country’s president and prime minister will now be able to issue orders directly to the heads of the army, navy and air force without going through the chief of the general staff, and the forces will be directly subordinated to the Defence Ministry.
The new wave of army expulsions and the overhaul of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) were announced in the official state gazette just hours after Mr Erdogan said late on Saturday he planned to shut down existing military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the Defence Ministry.
In a TV interview at the weekend Mr Erdogan also said he was looking to place the secret service under direct presidential control, saying the night of the failed coup on July 15 had revealed “serious weaknesses of intelligence”. The package would need to be brought to parliament for a vote.
The rally came amid tensions among Turks following the coup attempt and concern in Germany over the scale of the Turkish government’s subsequent crackdown on those it says are linked to US-based cleric it blames for the coup attempt.
German media said authorities had chose to bar Mr Erdogan from addressing a rally via videoconference in the city of Cologne on Sunday due to concerns over public order, prompting an angry response from Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister, Omer Celik.
The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joe Dunford, was to visit Turkey and was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Monday, the prime minister’s office said.
Turkey’s relations with Germany are also coming under strain, with Ankara demanding its crackdown on the Gulen movement extend to Gulen-affiliated schools in Germany, and seeking the extradition of members of the judiciary believed to have ties to the movement who are in Germany.
Police estimated that between 30,000 to 40,000 people demonstrated peacefully at the riverside rally, across the Rhine from downtown Cologne.
Germany has a sizeable population of people with Turkish roots.
Police in the German city of Cologne say Turkey’s sports minister is expected to attend Sunday’s rally, but authorities imposed the condition that no messages from speakers elsewhere, such as politicians in Turkey, could be shown on a video screen.
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Also Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demanded the 28-nation European Union say exactly when Turkish citizens will be granted visa-free entry and added that, if the rules aren’t loosened, Ankara will back off a deal to stem the flow of migrants into Europe.
