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Turkey Widens Purge as Crackdown Continues Vast Purge in Turkey as Thousands Are Detained in Post-Coup Backlash
(about 11 hours later)
ISTANBUL — Turkish authorities moved to widen their purge of perceived opponents on Monday by removing thousands of police officers from their posts, part of the crackdown that followed a failed military coup that was aimed at toppling the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ISTANBUL — The Turkish government’s crackdown after a military coup attempt widened into a sweeping purge on Monday, cutting a swath through the security services and reaching deeply into the government bureaucracy and political and business classes.
The Interior Ministry fired nearly 9,000 police officers on Monday, Turkish officials said. That followed the arrests of 6,000 military personnel and 103 generals and admirals, and the suspensions of nearly 3,000 judges over the weekend. The sheer numbers being detained or dismissed were stunning: Nearly 18,000 in all, including 6,000 military, almost 9,000 police, as many as 3,000 judges, 30 governors and one-third of all generals and admirals, as well as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s own military attaché.
Also on Monday, Mr. Erdogan extended an order for fighter jets to patrol the airspace over Istanbul and Ankara, and he banned military helicopters from taking off in Istanbul. The magnitude of the backlash by Mr. Erdogan suggested that the depth of support for the coup was far greater than it initially appeared, or that the president was using the opportunity to root out all perceived adversaries, or both.
The magnitude of the purges has raised concerns among Turkey’s Western allies that Mr. Erdogan is abandoning the rule of law and using the coup attempt as a pretext to cleanse the country’s institutions of his enemies. In Brussels on Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, urged Turkey — a member of NATO and a candidate for membership in the European Union — to show restraint. As hopes faded that Mr. Erdogan would try to use the moment to unite the country, instead taking a security-first approach, Western allies began to express alarm at what looked like score settling. On Monday in Brussels, Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, urged Turkey — a member of NATO and a candidate for membership in the European Union — to show restraint and preserve the rule of law.
“Obviously, NATO also has a requirement with respect to democracy, and NATO will indeed measure very carefully what is happening,” Mr. Kerry said. “And my hope is that Turkey is going to move in ways that do respect what they have said to me many times is the bedrock of their country.”“Obviously, NATO also has a requirement with respect to democracy, and NATO will indeed measure very carefully what is happening,” Mr. Kerry said. “And my hope is that Turkey is going to move in ways that do respect what they have said to me many times is the bedrock of their country.”
Ms. Mogherini said that “we need to respect, have Turkey respect, democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms,” and that any reintroduction of the death penalty — as some Erdogan supporters have urged — would be a nonstarter in talks about Turkey’s eventually joining the 28-nation bloc. But for the time, Mr. Erdogan stuck with a single-minded determination to punish anyone deemed disloyal. It was not clear how the state would keep functioning with so many crucial posts suddenly left vacant and paranoia and finger-pointing rampant. The government suspended vacations for the country’s three million civil servants, an effort that seemed intended to make sure the machinery of the state did not halt.
Mr. Erdogan pointed the finger at his former ally-turned-rival Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who has been in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999 and who is known to have a vast following in the police and judiciary. As the purge accelerated on Monday, the government was in particular targeting followers of the cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally turned rival who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, and whom Mr. Erdogan has blamed for trying to topple the government.
Western diplomats said on Monday that Turkey’s response to the coup attempt suggested that the government had prepared lists of those they believed to be linked to Mr. Gulen’s followers, before the unrest. A senior Turkish official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with government protocol, said that members of the Gulen movement in the military had been under investigation for some time, and that the group had pushed forward the coup conspiracy out of a sense of emergency when they realized that they might face prosecution.
A senior Turkish official said that members of the Gulen movement in the military had been under investigation for some time, and that the group had acted out of a sense of emergency when they realized that they might face prosecution. The suspended judges, the senior official said, were allied with the military faction behind the coup. And like others, the official said, they were actually on lists of suspected enemies compiled by the government even before the coup took place.
“There was a list of people who were suspected of conspiring to stage a coup,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, in line with government protocol. “And they did attempt a coup even though many people, including myself, treated the claims as a conspiracy theory at the time.” Turkish officials have acknowledged that the number of people rounded up was likely much greater than the actual roll of conspirators. But they maintain that it is necessary to prevent more attacks against civilians and government buildings, especially at a time when some perpetrators are still at large. In Ankara, closed-door hearings were held for some of the accused plotters.
“There was no arrest list,” the official said. “There was a list of people suspected of planning a coup.” Mr. Erdogan’s almost singular focus on the purges was likely fueled in part by his realization that support for the coup ran deeper in the military than initially thought — and by having just barely managed to outmaneuver the plotters.
The official added, “Some judges were directly linked to the military faction that staged the failed coup — they would have assumed control of government agencies and courts-martial had the coup succeeded.” Units from across Turkey’s armed forces, including the air force, army and gendarmerie, a military-style police force, worked simultaneously. The coup plotters waged airstrikes on the Parliament building, shut down bridges and seized top military commanders. Fighter jets were able to refuel in midair.
In Brussels, Mr. Kerry noted Mr. Erdogan’s call for the United States to send Mr. Gulen to Turkey. “These were serious people very close to the top of military power,” said Matthew Bryza, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. He added, “There is a sense there that the entire Turkish system as we know it was imperiled and narrowly escaped.”
“I made it clear to the foreign minister there is indeed a very formal process for that, and there has to be a formal extradition request submitted through the appropriate channels, legal channels,” Mr. Kerry said, adding that he had urged his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to “send us evidence, not allegations.” The government’s focus on accusations against Mr. Gulen, who has denied any involvement in the coup, has heightened tensions between the United States and Turkey. Turkish officials have publicly reinstated demands that Mr. Gulen be extradited to Turkey — though, according to American officials, no formal judicial request has been made. Some Turkish officials have run with the idea of a global conspiracy, accusing the United States of partnering with Mr. Gulen to orchestrate the coup.
Mr. Kerry said that the United States had no interest “in standing in the way of appropriately honoring the treaty that we have with Turkey with respect to extradition,” but he emphasized, “we’ve never had such a request, we’ve never had such evidence.” John Bass, the American ambassador to Turkey, issued a statement on Monday saying: “Some news reports — and, unfortunately, some public figures — have speculated that the United States in some way supported the coup attempt. This is categorically untrue, and such speculation is harmful to the decades-long friendship between two great nations.”
However, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim suggested to reporters in Ankara that the American request was not reasonable. Mr. Kerry said on Monday that the United States would consider extradition for Mr. Gulen if the Turks “send us evidence, not allegations.”
“We would be disappointed if our friends told us to present proof, even though members of the assassin organization are trying to destroy an elected government under the directions of that person,” Mr. Yildirim said. “At this stage, there could even be a questioning of our friendship.” He continued, “We need to see genuine evidence that withstands the standard of scrutiny that exists in many countries, the system of law with respect to the issue of extradition, and if it meets that standard there’s nothing, there’s no interest we have, in standing in the way of appropriately honoring the treaty that we have with Turkey with respect to extradition.”
While Turkish officials have acknowledged that the number of purges is excessive, they say that it is necessary to prevent another wave of attacks against civilians and government buildings, especially at a time when some perpetrators are still at large. Turkey is facing multiple security challenges, including terrorism by the Islamic State and a war with Kurdish militants in the southeast. The upheaval in Turkey’s security services, and the deep divisions within them that the coup attempt laid bare, are likely to affect Turkey’s ability to manage the country’s threats.
“Obviously, the courts will consider evidence and reach their verdicts,” the official said. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters on Monday that the country was “strong enough to eliminate multiple threats at the same time. Turkey is a great country with 100 years of experience.”
The vast scale of purges, especially among security forces, has left Turkish citizens anxious over how the country will maintain stability and order at a time when it is reeling from a string of terrorist attacks by the Islamic State and Kurdish militants that have killed scores of people over the past year. Mr. Erdogan reiterated on Monday that the Turkish people had called for the restoration of the death penalty for those involved in the revolt, and that his government would consider it.
Turmoil in the Middle East in recent years had made Turkey an essential ally of the West in handling the fallout from the civil war in Syria, battling extremists of the Islamic State and stemming the flow of refugees to Europe. Yet the widespread turmoil inside Turkey’s military now could hamper the country’s ability to remain engaged in those crises, analysts said.
The United States had come to see Turkey as a crucial member of the international coalition bombing the jihadists in Iraq and Syria. The Turkish Army is charged with securing the Syrian border, and American military and surveillance jets launch regular missions from Turkey’s Incirlik air base. But two Turkish jets from the base participated in the attempted coup, and the base’s Turkish commander was implicated in the plot, raising questions for American forces about the base’s security.
“This will have serious disruption in the way in which the coalition carries out its operations,” said Aaron Stein, a Turkey analyst at the Atlantic Council.
The vast scale of the purges, especially among the security forces, has also left Turkish citizens anxious over how the country will maintain stability and order at a time when it is reeling from a string of terrorist attacks by the Islamic State and Kurdish militants.
“The president is calling people out to the streets to stand guard against threats, and people are going, but how is this possible when there are active terrorist cells all over the country?” asked Seda Kapici, a lawyer, who was discussing the weekend’s events with a friend at a coffee shop in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul.“The president is calling people out to the streets to stand guard against threats, and people are going, but how is this possible when there are active terrorist cells all over the country?” asked Seda Kapici, a lawyer, who was discussing the weekend’s events with a friend at a coffee shop in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul.
“Everyone is on edge, and with these purges, I don’t know how people are going to be able to go about their normal lives,” she added. She added, “Everyone is on edge, and with these purges, I don’t know how people are going to be able to go about their normal lives.”
“The Erdogan supporters are sheep, and they will follow whatever he says. But for people like us that use our minds, we get that this means a huge lapse in security,” she said. “We are not safe.”