Turkey sacks more than 7,000 workersunder new decree

Turkey has sacked more than 7,000 workers including police, civil servants and academics, following the renewed state of emergency decree in Turkey released on Friday July 14, the eve of the anniversary of last year's attempted failed coup.

The new decree came a day before Turkey marks the first anniversary of a military-led coup to seize power from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday July 15, 2016 where more than 240 people, most of them civilians, were killed.

A total of 7,395 dismissals were carried out and 312 public workers were reinstated to their posts with the decree, reports states new agency, Anadolu.

Those dismissed were said to be “linked to terror organisations or groups determined to have been acting against the state’s national security.”

Turkish authorities also stripped 342 retired army personnel of their rank, said Anadolu while another report claims that 7,348 people, including 2,303 police, were dismissed in total.
  
The latest decree is part of a crackdown triggered by the failed coup, which Turkey says was organised by US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of President Erdogan.

Since the declaration of the state of emergency after the failed coup attempt, Turkey has issued a series of emergency decrees that has led to the dismissals or suspensions of thousands of individuals over their suspected links to the followers of Gülen.

Also dismissed with the decree is former Istanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu. The decree also stripped medals from former footballers Hakan Şükür and Arif Erdem while Şükür is currently being sought over his links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) and is believed to be in the US.

Meanwhile Gulen on Friday again denied any involvement in what he called a "despicable putsch," and called on Ankara to end its "witch hunt" of his followers.

Accusations against me related to the coup attempt are baseless, politically motivated slanders," Gulen, who lives at a compound in rural Pennsylvania, said in a statement.

I reiterate my condemnation of the despicable putsch and its perpetrators," he said, while decrying a government "witch hunt to weed out anyone it deems disloyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his regime.

In all, Turkey has sacked or suspended more than 150,000 officials, and arrested some 50,000 people from the military, police, judiciary, academia and other sectors.