But 231 members of the military remain in custody and another 1,700 military personnel have been expelled and dishonorably discharged.
Advertisement
On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Turkey should show proportionality in its pursuit of those behind the failed military coup, adding that she was following developments in the country with concern. He admitted that the night of the failed coup attempt had revealed “serious weakness of intelligence.” . General Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command said Turkey’s “frictions” have already impacted some operations against Islamic State.
Turkey has dismissed 1,389 personnel from the armed forces for suspected links to US -based Fethullah Gulen, the Muslim cleric whom Turkey accuses of being behind a failed coup attempt earlier this month.
American authorities have been forced to deny they had any involvement in the coup attempt or prior knowledge, amid anger in Ankara for refusing to extradite Gulen without evidence.
Erdogan also announced that a series of changes to the organizational structure of Turkey’s armed forces are on table.
The new degree also confirmed his announcement that a new national military university would be established within the defence ministry, while military schools and academies would be closed down. In addition to sweeping purges in the military, more than 66,000 public sector workers have been removed from their positions, two-thirds of them from the educational system.
Erdogan noted that the country’s military chief of staff and the intelligence agency will be under control of the president if parliament passes a constitutional package. As the government reasserted its authority, it wasted little time in its response.
The probe into coup plotters widened its scope to the financing of Gulen’s activities in Turkey, with what appeared to be the first major arrests targeting the business world.
Yildirim noted that Turkish people were continuing to take to the streets and squares across the country for the sake of protecting democracy in Turkey. In addition to the large number of detentions, TRT reported the interior minister has said 8,113 individuals have been arrested. “It is extremely clear that this is a political decision”, Sirakaya told Anadolu Agency.
The Turkish president’s spokesman is criticizing what he says is a German ban on an appearance by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a live broadcast at an anti-coup rally in Germany. “Every step we have taken, every decision we have made, every implementation we have launched, it has been under the constitution (and the country’s) laws”. An official from Erdogan’s office called the newspaper “the Gulen Movement’s flagship media organization”.
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 a US -based cleric it blames for the coup attempt.
“The prosecutors aren’t interested in what individual columnists wrote or said”.
Advertisement
Those anxious over the fate of coup supporters instead of Turkish democracy could not be friends of Ankara, he said.
