Erdogan’s Purge
After the attempted coup in Turkey, beginning late on July 15th, president Recep Erdogan has begun purging the system. Over 50,000 people have been fired, suspended, or detained. While the purge is guaranteed to continue due to Erdogan's religious and political motivations, it's not clear when he'll stop. The BBC doesn't believe there will be martial law, curfews, or some other potential actions. Political scientist Soner Cagaptay writes that Turkey "will be less free and less democratic" following the coup attempt. He, along with others, felt a coup was coming. Turkey has a history of coup attempts, some successful.
A rough running list of Turkish institutional casualties for 2016:
From Hurriyet Daily News -
- 5 suspended from the National Defense Ministry, including 3 generals
- 8 top level executives in the Turkish parliament have been removed from duty
- 184 Customs Ministry employees dismissed
- 245 personnel fired from the Youth and Sports Minstry (alternate source)
- 300 Energy Ministry employees dismissed
From CNNTurk.com -
- 86 Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) employees dismissed
- 51 Borsa Istanbul (national stock exchange) employees dismissed (Source: CNNTurk.com)
From AP News , the BBC, the Telegraph, and more -
- 100-180 removed from the National Intelligence Agency (MIT)
- Almost 200 court officials taken into custody, including 140 members of the Supreme Court and 48 members of the Council of State
- 257 staff working at the prime minister's (Binali Yildirim's) office fired with IDs seized
- 393-399 employees from the Family and Social Policy ministry removed
- 492 people from the Religious Affairs Directorate removed (Diyanet)
- 1,500 suspended from the Finance Ministry
- Resignation demanded from all 1,577 university deans in Turkey
- 2,745 judges and other members of the judiciary suspended
- 6,000 to 8,000 military personnel detained, plus up to 85 generals/admirals (or even 113 out of 360 generals)
- 8,777 employees dismissed from the Interior Ministry; including 30 (of 99) governors, 52 civil service inspectors, and 16 legal advisers
- Almost 9,000 police removed from duty or arrested (alternate source)
- 15,200 employees at the Ministry of National Education were fired
- 21,000 teachers in private schools had licenses revoked
Other things which happened:
- 232+ dead and 1,541 wounded during the coup
- Licenses revoked from 24 TV and radio channels (AC) (BBC) (Reuters)
- All Turkish academics banned from traveling abroad and other Turks require extra documentation to travel outside the country
- Turkey declares three-month state of emergency
- Talks of reinstating the death penalty, which was banned fewer than 10 years ago. Erdogan refuses to rule out execution as a sentence for coup leaders.
- 3,000,000 civil servants banned from going on holiday
This post was last updated on 20 July 2016. Current tally: at least 66,531 fired/suspended/detained.