Turkey sacks 18,000 civil servants over terror links

THE Turkish government has sacked more than 18,000 civil servants for alleged links to terror groups, as campaigners hoped it was preparing to lift the state of emergency in the wake of the 2016 failed coup.

Nearly 9,000 police officers, 6,000 members of the military and 199 academics from across Turkey were among those summarily dismissed in a decree published in the Official Gazette yesterday. Their passports will be cancelled.

The dismissals came before Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due to be sworn in for his second term today, following his victory in last month’s presidential election.

Mr Erdogan has overseen a series of purges since the July 2016 attempted coup, which saw parts of the Turkish military launch an operation to topple the government and oust its leader.

Turkey blamed Fethullah Gulen, the exiled preacher and businessmen, for the attempted power grab and cracked down decisively, implementing a state of emergency and using enhanced powers to sack scores of civil servants.

After two years, many were expecting an announcement lifting Turkey’s state of emergency, rather than further tightening of the screws.

According to the UN’S human rights office, more than 160,000 civil servants had already been dismissed before this latest round.

Turkey has defended the measures as necessary to combat threats to national security. But critics say they amount to purges of any individual or group who might be opposed to Mr Erdogan’s policies. Members of Kurdish groups and their supporters have also been dismissed from employment, detained and charged.

In April 2017, Mr Erdogan presided over a constitutional referendum which saw 18 amendments adopted, including the abolishment of the post of prime minister, the replacement of Turkey’s parliamentary system with a presidential system, and a significant beefing-up of presidential powers.