Turkey Dismisses 15,000 Civil Servants in Latest Purging Attempt

The new round of crackdown also affected news outlets and journalist as Ankara ordered more than 500 institutions and news outlets to shut down.
 
Ankara has already dismissed 100,000 people, including judges and prosecutors, whom it accuses of involvement in the failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July.
 
Authorities say the purges are “necessary” to clear public organizations of supporters of US-based opposition figure Fethullah Gulen, Erdogan’s ally-turned-archfoe, whom he accuses of masterminding the putsch.
 
The 75-year-old denies he had any role to play in the coup attempt.
 
Earlier, Erdogan warned the US-led Western military alliance, NATO, against sheltering Turkish soldiers in its command who have sought asylum, fearing repression by Ankara. He said his government demanded that those soldiers be extradited.
 
Turkey has also arrested dozens of university academics over alleged links to Gulen's movement. 73 academicians of Yildiz Technical University have so far been detained during simultaneous raids in different parts of Istanbul.