Turkey's top brass and political leaders were poised to launch a major overhaul of the armed forces on Thursday after a failed military coup that has shaken the nation of nearly 80 million people and alarmed its NATO allies.
Hours before the Supreme Military Council began its annual meeting in Ankara, the armed forces dishonourably discharged nearly 1,700 personnel for their alleged role in the July 15-16 putsch in which a faction of the armed forces tried to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It was too close for him
Mr. Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, told Reuters in an interview last week that the military, NATO'S second biggest, needed “fresh blood.” The dishonourable discharges included around 40 per cent of Turkey’s Admirals and Generals.
Turkey accuses U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the coup and has suspended or placed under investigation tens of thousands of his suspected followers, including soldiers, judges and academics. In the aftermath of the coup, media outlets, schools and universities have also been closed down.
Links to cleric
As the crackdown widened, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that more than 300 personnel in his Ministry had links to Mr. Gulen and that it had dismissed 88 employees.
Separately, Turkey's biggest petrochemicals company Petkim said its chief executive had resigned and the state-run news agency Anadolu said he had been detained in connection with the failed coup.
Citing intelligence reports, Turkey’s Justice Minister said on Thursday that Mr. Gulen, once a powerful ally of Mr. Erdogan, could flee his residence in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania. But Mr. Gulen denies any involvement in the coup.
Western governments and human rights groups have condemned the coup, in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, but have also expressed concern over the scale and depth of the purges, fearing that Mr. Erdogan may be using them to get rid of opponents and tighten his grip on power.
Merkel urges restraint
German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the latest Western leader on Thursday to urge restraint, while underlining Turkey’s need to take action against the rebels.
“In a constitutional state — and this is what worries me and what I am following closely — the principle of proportionality must be ensured by all,” she told a news conference in Berlin.
Mr. Cavusoglu told broadcaster CNN Turk that some prosecutors with links to Mr. Gulen had fled to Germany and he urged Berlin to extradite them. He also said he saw “positive change” in the attitude of the United States towards Ankara’s request to extradite the cleric to Turkey.
Security challenges even before the coup
Even before the failed coup, Turkey was struggling with major security challenges including attacks by Kurdish militants and the Islamic State (IS), a grim reality underscored by tourism data on Thursday showing a 40 per cent fall in foreign visitors in June.
Turmoil in Turkey's armed forces raises questions about its ability to contain the IS threat in neighbouring Syria and the renewed Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, military analysts say.
Among the nearly 1,700 military personnel discharged were 149 generals and admirals, a Turkish government official said late on Wednesday.
Two four-star generals quit
Two four-star generals from the land forces also resigned, CNN Turk reported, without giving a reason. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the military council decisions would be announced later on Thursday and take immediate effect.
The Islamist-rooted AK Party, founded by Mr. Erdogan and in power since 2002, has long had testy relations with the military, which for decades saw itself as the ultimate guardian of Turkey’s secular order and the legacy of the nation’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The military has ousted four governments in the past 60 years.
However, Mr. Erdogan says the armed forces have been infiltrated in recent years by Mr. Gulen’s supporters. “The army has to stop being the army of the Fethullah Gulen terrorist organisation,” Mr. Bozdag said.
Exerting control
In a symbolic sign of how civilian authorities are now firmly in charge, Thursday's military council meeting was held at the office of Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim rather than General Staff headquarters.
Mr. Yildirim accompanied senior military officers to pay respects at Ataturk’s mausoleum in Ankara ahead of the meeting.
“We will surely eliminate all terror organisations that target our state, our nation and the indivisible unity of our country,” Mr. Yildirim said in televised remarks at the mausoleum.
Changes since the coup include bringing the gendarmerie, which is responsible for security in rural areas, and the coast guard firmly under Interior Ministry control rather than under General Staff control.
Over 15,000 detained so far
CNN Turk has reported that more than 15,000 people, including around 10,000 soldiers have been detained so far over the coup, citing the Interior Minister. Of those, more than 8,000 were formally arrested pending trial, it said.
The government said on Wednesday it had ordered the closure of three news agencies, 16 television channels, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers. This announcement followed the shutting of other media outlets and detention of journalists with suspected Gulenist ties.
Extradition urgent: Minister
This month’s events have exacerbated Turkey’s difficult relations with the United States. Washington has responded cautiously to the request to extradite Mr. Gulen, saying it must provide clear evidence of his involvement in the coup plot.
Mr. Bozdag said Mr. Gulen’s extradition was an urgent matter, not least because he said Turkey was receiving intelligence that the 75-year-old cleric might flee, possibly to Australia, Mexico, Canada, South Africa or Egypt. Egypt said it had not received an asylum request.
Mr. Gulen built up his reputation as a Sunni Muslim preacher with intense sermons. His movement, known as Hizmet, or “Service” in Turkish, set up hundreds of schools and businesses in Turkey and later abroad. His philosophy stresses the need to embrace scientific progress, shun radicalism and build bridges to the West and other religious faiths.
The United States and the European Union, which Turkey aspires to join, have both urged Ankara to show restraint in its crackdown on suspected Gulen supporters and to ensure those arrested have a fair trial.
Amnesty’s charges
Amnesty International has said detainees may have suffered human rights violations, including beatings and rape - an accusation roundly rejected by Ankara.
The EU has also bridled at talk in Turkey — from Mr. Erdogan down — of restoring the death penalty, a move Brussels said would scupper Ankara's decades-old bid to join the bloc.
Tourism, a pillar of the economy, has been badly hit by a series of deadly bombings in Turkey, including one at Istanbul’s airport in June that killed 45 people, and by tensions with Russia. Data showing a 40 per cent drop year-on-year in June in the number of foreign visitors to Turkey is further bad news for the government. The drop was the biggest fall in 22 years.
