Nearly 13,000 police officers have been suspended, dozens of air force officers detained and a TV station shut down widening a state ordered clampdown against perceived enemies in the wake of July’s failed coup in Turkey,.
The suspensions were ordered hours after Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus announced that the cabinet had approved a 90-day extension to a state of emergency, renewing President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers to govern by decree at least until January.
The emergency extension, which parliamentary is likely to wave through, means Erdogan can take decisions without oversight of the Constitutional Court, Turkey’s highest legal body.
Since the July 15th insurrection, Erdogan has taken steps to rid state institutions of staff deemed disloyal or potential enemies. About 100,000 people in the military, civil service, police, judiciary and universities have been sacked or suspended from their jobs, and 32,000 arrested. The government said, its aim is to rid institutions of links to Gulen, whose organization it calls a terrorist network.