ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkey has sacked 2,756 more people from its public service sector for alleged links to terror groups as it presses ahead with purges launched following last year’s failed military coup.
According to two government decrees published in the Official Gazette yesterday, those dismissed in the new wave of purges include 637 military personnel, 360 gendarmerie force members, and 150 academics or other university personnel.
Turkey blames the July 2016 coup on US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Some 50,000 people have been arrested and more than 110,000 civil servants have been dismissed for alleged links to Gulen or militant groups in a crackdown since then.
The government says the purges are needed to counter the continuing danger posed by followers of Gulen’s movement.
Gulen denies involvement in the coup.
