Turkey Purges Over 18,000 Personnel in Police, Military and Public Service

Turkey’s authorities dismissed 18,632 public workers, including police officers, military personnel and academics, in the latest wave of purge before lifting the emergency rule later this month.

The Turkish government issued the latest emergency decree No: 701 earlier on Sunday amid days of expectations after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim signaled a large wave of dismissals on Friday.

With the decree, 12 foundations, three newspapers and one television station have been shut down as well, in addition to dismissals of public servants. In total, 148 workers who had been previously sacked were reinstated to their positions.

Out of the dismissed workers, 8,998 were from Turkey’s National Police. The purge also hit the military hard. At least, 6,152 personnel have found themselves fired.

In Turkey’s Ground Forces, 3,077 officers have been dismissed, while in Navy the number was 1,126 and in Air Force, 1,949 officers and non-commissioned officers have been sacked.

Until today, more than 178,000 government workers have either been suspended or dismissed.

Turkey’s academia is one of the institutions that has been targeted in the latest decree as 199 academics lost their jobs. More than 7,000 academics have been sacked since the aftermath of the failed coup in 2016.

The government was preparing the list for quite some time and announced it before the oath ceremony of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday. Erdogan won the June 24 presidential elections.