Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Photo:AFP
Turkey suspends 13,000 police officers, shuts down TV station
More than 2,500 police chiefs and 33 air force officers were among those detained in the current suspension; TV station shut down; since the Turkish coup attempt, around 100,000 people removed from their posts; Turkey has extended its state of emergency until mid-January.
Turkish authorities suspended nearly 13,000 police officers, detained dozens of air force officers and shut down a TV station on Tuesday, widening a state-ordered clampdown against perceived enemies in the wake of July's failed coup.
The police headquarters said 12,801 officers, including 2,523 chiefs, were suspended because of their suspected links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating the attempt to overthrow the government.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Photo: EPA)
Gülen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, denies any link to the coup attempt, which led to the deaths of more than 240 people.
The suspensions were ordered hours after Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus announced that the cabinet had approved a 90-day extension to a state of emergency, renewing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's powers to govern by decree at least until January.
The emergency extension, which parliament is likely to wave through, means Erdoğan can take decisions without oversight of the Constitutional Court, Turkey's highest legal body.
As well as suspending five percent of the entire police force, the authorities detained 33 air force officers in raids across the country, the private Dogan news agency reported, and the transmission of TV station IMC was cut following accusations of spreading "terrorist propaganda".
State-run Anadolu Agency said 37 people working in the Interior Ministry's headquarters had also been removed from their posts, although no explanation was given.
Since the July 15 insurrection, Erdoğan has taken steps to rid state institutions of staff deemed disloyal or potential enemies. About 100,000 people in the military, civil service, police, judiciary and universities have been sacked or suspended from their jobs, and 32,000 arrested.
The government says its aim is to rid institutions of links to Gulen, whose organisation it calls a terrorist network.
One of the police officers suspended on Tuesday, a 26-year-old man, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in a park in the Mediterranean city of Mersin, Dogan reported.
The relentless crackdown has caused consternation among Turkey's Western allies and human rights groups, who fear Erdoğan is using the unsuccessful coup as a pretext to curtail any dissent, while at the same time intensifying his moves against suspected Kurdish militants and sympathisers.
On Tuesday evening, the armed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) attacked a Turkish military outpost in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, in Diyarbikar province, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, the local governor said.
"An attack has been made by the divisive terrorist organisation on military personnel," the governor's office said in a statement, using the usual terminology to describe the PKK.
In August, Turkish forces launched an offensive into northern Syria in support of rebels fighting against ISIS, creating a security corridor along the Turkey-Syria border that also appears designed to push Kurdish militia away.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday that the YPG Kurdish militia, which is backed by the United States, was filling a vacuum left by ISIS and said Turkish forces were prepared to go after Kurdish fighters in the same way.
"We know how to cleanse the PYD/YPG, just as we cleansed Daesh from Jarablus," he said, referring to ISIS.
Ankara fears Kurdish militants fighting for greater autonomy in Turkey could benefit from turmoil in the region.
In a further sign of the government's desire to move rapidly to quell domestic opposition, Yildirim said the judicial process needed to be speeded up, especially when it came to prosecuting those accused of backing the coup.
"One of the main goals is shortening the time it takes to prosecute people," he said. "We are starting this with the July 15 coup plotters. We are doing this quickly."
While Turkey cracks down at home and expands its footprint in Syria, it also wants the United States to extradite Gülen so he can be prosecuted on charges that he masterminded the failed insurrection.
On Sunday, Turkish counter-terrorism police detained Gülens brother in Izmir, where he was staying at a relative's house. Several of Gülen's relatives, including a nephew, niece and cousins, have been arrested since July 15.
Erdoğan's security clampdown may be bolstering his own authority but it has had economic repercussions, with credit ratings agencies downgrading the country's debt to "junk" and the lira weakening against the dollar.
On Tuesday, Yildirim lowered the growth outlook for 2016, saying the economy was likely to expand 3.2 percent, well below an original 4.5 percent forecast, while inflation for the year is set to hit 7.5 percent.
