The Turkish authorities have sacked nearly 4,500 additional officials in connection with the purges launched after the coup attempt in July, according to a decree published in the Official Gazette.
Among the 4,464 people expelled from the civil service are 2,585 employees of the Ministry of Education, 893 of the gendarmerie, 10 of the Court of Cassation, 10 others of the High Electoral Council and 88 of the public television channel TRT.
Among the dismissed officials are also 330 academics from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), including Ibrahim Kaboglu, one of the country’s most renowned constitutional law specialists.
These measures are taken within the framework of the state of emergency established after the July 15 coup attempt. The Turkish authorities accuse Fethullah Gülen, a preacher exiled in the United States, of having hatched the coup de force, which he denies.
Since the failed coup, more than 41,000 people have been arrested in Turkey and over 100,000 sacked or suspended, including teachers, police officers and magistrates.
Dozens of media and associations have also been closed and many journalists dismissed. On an unprecedented scale in Turkey, these purges are causing concern among Western partners in Ankara and human rights organizations, who fear that the state of emergency may serve as a pretext for suppressing any dissenting voice .
This concern is all the stronger as Turkey prepares for a referendum, presumably in April, on a constitutional revision greatly strengthening the powers of Mr. Erdogan. The opposition denounces an unfavorable context for democratic debate, in a state of emergency.
The Turkish authorities, for their part, affirm that these exceptional measures are necessary to eliminate the risks of sedition and to face the “terrorist” threat of the Islamic State (EI) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The country has been hit for more than a year and a half by an unprecedented wave of attacks, including strikes in Istanbul and Ankara and killing hundreds