As part of a post-coup-attempt purge, the Turkish government has dismissed 10,158 people from state institutions with new state of emergency decrees issued on Saturday.
According to the two new decrees, numbered 675 and 676, a total 10,158 staff members, including 2,216 from the Education Ministry, 2,774 from the Health Ministry and 1,267 from the Higher Education Board (YÖK), have been permanently dismissed for allegedly “being members of terrorist organizations or organizations, groups that were listed by the National Security Council as acting against the security of the state.”
In accordance with decree number 68. students who are receiving an education in the US, Canada or the UK have been dismissed from their schools in Turkey.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Despite Gülen and the movement having denied the accusation, Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government launched a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
More than 105,000 people have been purged from state bodies, in excess of 80,000 detained and over 36,000 have been arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees include journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, governors and even a comedian. Critics argue that lists of Gülen sympathizers were drawn up prior to the coup attempt.