A huge cleansing of Turkey’s state and other institutions is continuing as people from all walks of life find themselves hunted down and taken into custody.
At least 110 people were arrested while 196 others were detained on Friday, according to Turkish news agencies.
Police carried out the operations in at least 35 provinces across Turkey. With most of the arrestees being academic personnel, those arrested over the past day also included civil servants, police officers, courthouse personnel, hospital workers, engineers and the owner of a baklava chain.
Among those detained are teachers, civil servants, businessmen, police officers and military pilots.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Interior Ministry on Friday dismissed a total of 265 military officers, 153 from the Gendarmerie Forces Command and 112 from the Coast Guard Command, on the grounds that they have links with the Gülen movement. The Defense Ministry also announced on Friday that 195 personnel, 158 of whom are officers, have been dismissed from the Land Forces Command and Naval Forces Command over the same accusation.
In Malatya province four civil servants along with a doctor were suspended on Friday.
The victims of Friday’s operations carried out as part of the massive purge have been added to the already-large group of people who have been either detained or arrested since July 15.
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.
(Turkey Purge)