The Turkish government dismissed nearly 1,400 military personnel for suspected links to a cleric it blames for an attempted coup, state media said on Sunday, hours after President Tayyip Erdogan announced sweeping changes to the armed forces.
The expulsions are the latest attempt by Erdogan to bring Turkey’s military – long seen as the guardians of the secular republic – firmly under government control. On Saturday he said he planned to shut down existing military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the Defence Ministry.
State-run Anadolu Agency said on Sunday that 1,389 military personnel had been dismissed for suspected links to the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the July 15-16 failed putsch. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, has denied the charges and condemned the coup.
Earlier this week, more than 1,700 military personnel were dishonourably discharged for their role in the putsch, which saw a faction of the armed forces commandeer tanks, helicopters and warplanes in an attempt to topple the government. Erdogan has said 237 people were killed and more than 2,100 wounded.
Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, told Reuters in an interview last week that the military, NATO’s second-biggest, needed “fresh blood”. The dishonourable discharges included about 40 percent of Turkey’s admirals and generals.
So far, more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and schools have been either detained, removed or suspended over suspected links with Gulen. Turkey’s Western allies condemned the attempted coup, but have been rattled by the scale of the resulting crackdown.
The aggressive cuts to the military come when it is stretched by heavy fighting with Kurdish insurgents in the mainly Kurdish southeast and threats from Islamic State militants at its border with Syria.
Turkey’s military is a member of the US-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Its Incirlik Air Base is used by coalition forces for missions against Islamic State.
