Turkey Purges More Than 18,600 Civil Servants in 11th-Hour Decree
- Erdogan to take office with expanded powers on Monday
- Academics, police and army targeted; 3 newspapers shut down
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Turkey purged more than 18,500 people from government jobs for allegedly posing a security risk to the state, a day before Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes office as an executive president with vastly expanded powers.
About 9,000 police personnel and more than 6,000 officers from the country’s armed services were among the 18,632 public sector workers dismissed Sunday, along with almost 200 academics and about 650 teachers, according to the latest decree the government published under its state of emergency. Three newspapers, one TV channel and 12 associations were also shut down.