Turkey launches massive dismissal in key organs over coup purge

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan clashed with academics earlier this year, when more than 1,000 of them signed a petition calling for peace in the southeast and criticizing the government’s handling of the state’s long-running battle with its Kurdish population centered there. “At every level of government, the period of cleaning this virus will continue”, Erdogan said.

President Erdogan has vowed to build barracks in Taksim Square, after a faction of the Turkish military attempted to overthrow him through a military coup on July 15.

Annual leave has been suspended for more than three million civil servants, while close to 3,000 judges and prosecutors have also been purged.

Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu not only said Gulen supporters were behind the coup attempt but likened them to ISIS or the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by Turkey, state news agency Anadolu reports. Dozens of others were still being questioned.

Gulen has denied being behind the failed coup and dismissed calls for his extradition back to Turkey.

He assured the nation that the armed forces will remain under the command and control of the governors and, “As the president elected, as the commander in chief, I will attend to it so that all viruses in the armed forces will be cleansed”. No reason was given for the detention.

He said while there have been successful takeovers several times throughout Turkey’s history, the main difference this time was scale, describing it as a “reckless attempt to seize power”.

Russian and European leaders have also declared support for Mr Erdogan, and even the newly-appointed United Kingdom foreign minister Boris Johnson was forced to defend the Erdogan regime only two months after winning a poetry competition in The Spectator with an entry that involved Mr Erdogan committing a sexual act with a goat.

He told USA broadcaster CNN that he narrowly escaped death after coup plotters stormed the resort town of Marmaris where he was on holiday.

Turkey scrapped the death penalty in 2004 as part of its push to join the European Union, and European leaders have warned Ankara against restoring it.

Addressing a crowd of supporters in Istanbul on Saturday, Mr Erdogan said: “I call on the United States and President Barack Obama: Dear Mr. President, I told you this before, either arrest Fethullah Gulen or return him to Turkey”.

“In a country where our youths are killed with tanks and bombs, if we stay silent, as political people we will be held responsible in the afterlife”, Mr Erdogan added, pointing out that capital punishment exists around the world, including in the United States and China.

Turkey has sacked nearly 9,000 officials in its relentless crackdown against suspected plotters of the coup attempt.