2.4 percent of Turkish public sector discharged over Gülen links: Deputy PM

Hande Fırat – ANKARA

Some 2.4 percent of Turkish public sector workers were discharged over their suspected links to the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş has said.

Kurtulmuş also said legal procedures were carried out against nearly 115,000 public employees as part of efforts to discharge Gülenists.

“It’s highly probable that an overwhelming majority of them are members of this group,” he said during a meeting with media representatives late on June 14, adding that the state of emergency commission will investigate the cases to decide whether dismissed officials are actually members of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), widely believed to have been behind the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt.

“Let’s say that some 90 or 95 percent of them are the group’s members. The commission will establish a template for itself and will present the criteria of who is a FETÖ member within objective dimensions,” Kurtulmuş also said.

Turkey declared a state of emergency after the attempted takeover and has been issuing state of emergency decrees ever since. Thousands of people have been suspended or dismissed from their posts over their suspected links to the thwarted coup. 

Upon complaints about dismissals, a commission was formed to investigate the state of emergency procedures. 

“The trials are ongoing. We hope the courts issue their rulings in an objective way,” Kurtulmuş said.

During his speech, he also touched upon the opposition’s criticism of the government for “not revealing the political leg of FETÖ.”

“Another criticism concerns the political leg issue. It’s probable that a coup attempt that was prepared like this has legs in many different spots. Our responsibility is to try to bring all the factors behind it forward. Our aim is to obtain results without diluting the cases. There are examples that come to us that cause us to say ‘no way.’ For example, arresting a man who has no relation to Gülenists for being a FETÖ member, but not seeing actual Gülenists,” Kurtulmuş added.