Army braces for further purges after 118 arrests

More than 100 serving soldiers were taken into custody yesterday as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of Turkey, launched a new purge of the military.

The soldiers were arrested under a warrant issued by a court in Istanbul, adding to the more than 300 detained since the start of this month. All are accused of links to the Gulenists, an outlawed social movement that the Turkish government accuses of orchestrating a coup attempt in July 2016.

The 118 arrested yesterday are the latest casualties of the more than 15,000 military personnel who have been dismissed in the past two and a half years, 150 of them generals and admirals and a further 7595 high-ranking officers. The clear-out paved the way for Erdogan’s first crossborder operation into Syria, Euphrates Shield, which began in August 2016.

Turkey’s Second Army, charged with defending the southern borders, lost its senior leadership after the coup. It had thwarted the president’s plans to put boots on the ground inside Syria, a stance that the government claimed had been driven by Gulenist officers.

Turkish military analyst Metin Gurcan said that up to 4000 service personnel could be dismissed as prosecutors examined telephone records dating back to 2012. Any military member who has received more than two calls from public phones will be under scrutiny.

Erdogan is threatening to begin another operation against Kurdish militias inside northern Syria, which risks Turkish forces clashing directly with US special forces in the area.

The Pentagon is training fighters from the Kurdish YPG. The US has set up observation posts in YPG-controlled territory close to the Turkish border. It has also warned Syrian rebel militias allied to Turkey not to get involved in any offensives led by the neighbouring country. –