Turkey sacks nearly 4,500 public employees

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – In the latest wave of crackdowns, Turkish authorities on Tuesday sacked 4,464 public employees with a government decree.

The decree released on the Government’s Official Gazette website accused the public employees of links to illegal groups.

The order came after the first phone conversation between the US president Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The latest state of emergency decree meant some 2,585 Education Ministry staff, 893 from the gendarmerie, 417 from the General Security Directorate, 49 from the Interior Ministry, and 520 from other ministries lost their jobs.

Additionally, 330 academics from 48 universities were dismissed, 115 of whom had reportedly signed the Academics for Peace petition.

The sacked civil servants also had their passports revoked by the government and were banned from leaving the country.

After five statutory decrees issued over the past seven months had reached 4,811, the positions of 16 academics were later reinstated.

The Council for Higher Education (YÖK), after approvals from the presidency of the universities, is investigating the academics who had peace declarations.

Turkey’s government imposed a state of emergency throughout the country after the failed coup attempt in mid-July, restricting freedoms and empowering the police and prosecutors.

Tens of thousands of public servants have so far been dismissed or suspended from their jobs over suspected ties to illegal groups.

The “illegal groups” included the Gulen Movement led by the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Erdogan holds responsible for masterminding the coup attempt, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Turkish government has been demanding the extradition of Gulen, but the US refuses to succumb to the pressure without evidence.

Critics say Turkey’s two-pronged purges have turned into an excuse to target political opposition.

Several opposition lawmakers including the co-leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag have been arrested on terror propaganda charges.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany