Turkey
to shut military academies as it targets armed forces for ‘cleansing’
Western
allies rattled by scale of crackdown on more than 60,000 people after
failed coup in Turkey
Reuters
Sunday 31 July 2016
02.18 BST
Turkey will shut its
military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the
defence minister, Fikri Isik, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on
Saturday in a move designed to bring the military under tighter
government control after a failed coup.
Isik told
broadcaster NTV the shake-up in the military was not yet over, adding
that military academies would now be a target of “cleansing”.
The changes, some of
which Erdogan said would likely be announced in the government’s
official gazette by Sunday, come after more than 1,700 military
personnel were dishonourably discharged this week for their role in
the abortive 15-16 July putsch.
Erdogan, who
narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup,
said the military, Nato’s second-biggest, needed “fresh blood“.
The dishonourable discharges included around 40% of Turkey’s
admirals and generals.
Turkey accuses
US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the coup, in
which a faction of the military commandeered tanks, helicopters and
fighter jets and attempted to topple the government. Erdogan has said
237 people were killed and more than 2,100 wounded.
Gulen, who has lived
in self-imposed exile in the US for years, denies the charge and has
condemned the coup. So far, more than 60,000 people in the military,
judiciary, civil service and schools have been either detained,
removed or suspended over suspected links with Gulen.
“Our armed forces
will be much stronger with the latest decree we are preparing. Our
force commanders will report to the defence minister,” Erdogan said
in an interview on Saturday with A Haber, a private broadcaster.
“Military schools
will be shut down ... We will establish a national defence
university.“
He also said he
wanted the national intelligence agency and the chief of general
staff, the most senior military officer, to report directly to the
presidency, moves that would require a constitutional change and
therefore the backing of opposition parties.
Both the general
staff and the intelligence agency now report to the prime minister’s
office. Putting them under the president’s overall direction is in
line with Erdogan’s push for a new constitution centred on a strong
executive presidency.
Erdogan also said
that a total of 10,137 people have been formally arrested following
the coup.
The shake-up comes
as Turkey’s military – long seen as the guardians of the secular
republic – is already stretched by violence in the mainly Kurdish
southeast, and Isis attacks on its border with Syria.
The army killed 35
Kurdish militants after they attempted to storm a base in the
southeastern Hakkari province early on Saturday, military officials
said.
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Erdogan said he
planned to thin the numbers of the gendarmerie security forces widely
used in the fight against Kurdish militants in the southeast,
although he said they would become more effective with better
weaponry and he promised to continue the fight against insurgents.
Separately, the head
of the pro-Kurdish opposition said the government’s chance to
revive a wrecked peace process with Kurdish rebels has been missed as
Erdogan taps nationalist sentiment to consolidate support.
State-run Anadolu
Agency reported that 758 soldiers were released on the recommendation
of prosecutors after giving testimony, and the move was agreed by a
judge.
Another 231 soldiers
remain in custody, it said.
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