ANKARA: Turkey has dismissed over 900 public sector officials in the latest wave of the purge that followed last year’s failed coup, according to an emergency decree published Friday.
A second decree said Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which was previously under the prime minister, would now report to the president, expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers over public institutions.
In another example of his growing control over major institutions, the president has been able to choose university rectors since a controversial emergency decree last October.
More than 140,000 people have been sacked or suspended including judges and prosecutors since July 2016 over alleged links to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey has accused of ordering the attempted coup. Gulen has denied the charges.
More than 50,000 people including journalists have been arrested under the state of emergency imposed last year in a crackdown that has triggered international concern.
Critics have accused the government of using the state of emergency to crack down on all forms of opposition. But Turkish authorities insist it is necessary to ensure Turkey’s security from the multiple threats it faces from Gulen and Kurdish militants.
A total of 928 people were sacked in the latest decree, including civil servants working in the defense, foreign and interior ministries as well as military personnel.
Turkish authorities also stripped 10 retired brigadier generals of their rank.
But the decree said 57 civil servants and military personnel returned to their jobs, including 28 from the justice ministry and related institutions.
Another 734 security personnel returned to their jobs after being suspended over suspected links to Gulen, the national security directorate said in a statement on its website.
Six organizations, including three media outlets in the southeast, were shut down including Dicle Media News Agency, based in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir.
Dozens of media outlets including newspapers and broadcasters have been closed down since July last year.
The second decree also gave the Turkish intelligence agency the power to investigate the defense ministry and Turkish armed forces personnel.
Erdogan’s authorization would be needed for the intelligence chief to be investigated under the new decree.
The president would also need to approve any request made for the MIT head, currently Hakan Fidan, to act as a witness in court.
The presidency will also head a new body called the National Intelligence Coordination Board (MIKK).
The move appears to be part of measures taken to implement changes approved in the April referendum on expanding Erdogan’s powers to create an executive presidency.
Most of the measures are due to come into effect after the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The latest decree also created 32,014 roles in the national security directorate, including 22,000 police officers, as well as 4,000 judges and prosecutors.
Turkey dismisses over 900 public sector workers in latest purge since July 2016 coup
Turkey dismisses over 900 public sector workers in latest purge since July 2016 coup
Palestinian NGO condemns Israeli act of ‘revenge’ after prisoner abuse video
- A Palestinian NGO has denounced what it called an Israeli act of revenge after a video showed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the abuse of detainees in a military priso
RAMALLAH: A Palestinian NGO has denounced what it called an Israeli act of revenge after a video showed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the abuse of detainees in a military prison.
Just days before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Ben Gvir held a tour of Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Channel 7 reported.
In footage filmed on Friday and broadcast by the channel, around 20 police officers are seen storming a hallway leading to prison cells, brandishing their weapons and firing stun grenades.
They then pull five detainees from their cells, their hands tied behind their backs, forcing them face-down onto the floor.
The operation took place as a bill proposing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism awaited a final vote in the Israeli parliament.
“This is all part of ongoing displays meant to take revenge on Palestinian detainees,” Abdallah al?Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, told AFP on Saturday.
“Everything Ben Gvir and the far?right government are doing affects not only the Palestinian people and prisoners in detention camps — it also impacts the global legal and human rights system,” he added.
Ben Gvir, known for his inflammatory rhetoric, is considered one of the most hard-line members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
“It is simply a source of pride — arriving at a prison like this, a prison for terrorists, the vilest of the vile, seeing them like this,” Ben Gvir said in the video.
“I want one more thing: to execute them — the death penalty for terrorists,” he added.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday said the remarks were “a new war crime and a blatant challenge to international humanitarian law regarding prisoners.”
International rights groups have repeatedly warned of alleged abuse and mistreatment inflicted in Israeli prisons since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country, with the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann the last person to be executed in 1962.
