Turkish prosecutors ordered the arrest of 968 suspects linked to an organization that Ankara blames for a failed 2016 coup attempt, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said on Monday.
A rogue faction within the military launched a short-lived bid to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government on July 15, 2016. The attempt triggered clashes that killed about 250 people and wounded around 2,000 others.
Ankara has accused the late U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally, of masterminding the plot and has vowed to eliminate his network, which it labels the Fethullah Terrorist Organization, or FETO.
In the aftermath, the government imposed a two-year state of emergency and carried out a broad purge of the armed forces, police, judiciary, media, education system, and diplomatic service. Hundreds of thousands of people were detained and tens of thousands dismissed, measures that left a lasting impact on Turkish institutions.
Gurlek and Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci described Monday’s nationwide operation as part of “the great purification campaign.” Police are seeking the 968 suspects to remove remaining FETO-linked elements from state institutions, the ministers said in a joint statement posted on X.
“Our nation’s will and the survival of our state are under threat from the treacherous FETO/PDY network, and our struggle against it continues with the same determination as on the first day,” they wrote, using an acronym for what Ankara calls the group’s “parallel state structure.”
Analysts have described the failed coup as a turning point in modern Turkish history that enabled Erdogan to strengthen his hold on power. Last week, Ciftci wrote to the governors of all 81 provinces, calling the July 15 events “a foundational and indisputable turning point.”
July 2016 Coup
Although the coup of July 15, 2016, lasted barely 24 hours, its aftermath has become a turning point for Turkey, sparking changes that have transformed society, analysts say.
On that evening, a rogue military faction used warplanes and tanks to attack government buildings in Istanbul and Ankara in a bid to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which left some 250 dead and another 2,000 wounded.
Declaring a state of emergency, Ankara began a purge in which hundreds of thousands were detained, over 120,000 convicted, and tens of thousands sacked in a sweep that gutted the army, the judiciary, and other state institutions.
Ten years on, the events of that fateful night are still felt — with prosecutors moving Monday to arrest nearly 1,000 people for ties to the late Fetullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally whose so-called FETO group was blamed for the coup.
“Our nation’s will and the survival of our state are under threat from the treacherous FETO,” said Justice Minister Akin Gurlek, describing the arrests as part of “the great purification campaign”.
For Turkey, the coup was “a foundational and indisputable turning point,” Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci wrote of a date the government has sought to mythologize, renaming schools, squares and parks in its honor, most famously the main iconic suspension bridge over the Bosphorus.
On that night, Erdogan described the unfolding coup as “a great gift from God,” with experts agreeing it was instrumental in cementing his powers.
“The coup facilitated Erdogan tightening his grip on power through the state of emergency,” said Gareth Jenkins, a veteran Turkey analyst affiliated with the ISDP think tank.
Never before had Turkey had “a state of emergency which enabled one person to assert his dominance over the whole machinery of state”, he told AFP.
Within two weeks, 16,000 people were arrested — two-thirds soldiers, the rest police, judges and prosecutors — and more than 50,000 sacked, mostly in the education sector, official figures showed.
Gonul Tol of the Washington-based Middle East Institute said July 15 became “a turning point in Turkey’s democracy”.
“Erdogan used it as an excuse to go after his political opponents, which paved the way for autocratisation at an unprecedented speed,” she said.
Didier Billion of France’s Institute for International and Strategic Relations said the coup was “a godsend for Erdogan.. (who) seized this opportunity extremely quickly to strengthen his powers” by transforming the political system into a presidential regime via a referendum nine months later.
He also pushed through reforms to the judiciary “which significantly undermined its independence”, he said.
With more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors dismissed, it opened the way for a mix of Erdogan loyalists and ‘careerists’ who were loyal to whoever was in power, Jenkins said.
“When you look at the judicial cases now, and the influence of Erdogan and his advisors within the Turkish judiciary, that’s a direct result of a coup and a state of emergency.”
Since then, there have been scores of trials targeting dissidents and political opponents, critics say are politically motivated, such as the cases targeting Istanbul’s jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a powerful Erdogan opponent.
The crackdown also decimated the Turkish military, with tens of thousands dismissed and the government quick to strengthen civilian control to ensure it could no longer resort to coups to interfere in the country’s politics.
Civil society was not spared, with over 1,500 associations and foundations shuttered, and scores of newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations closed as most media were brought under government influence.
Despite Ankara’s efforts to portray the coup as a uniquely unifying event for Turkey, the initial rally-round-the-flag impact was short-lived, said Tol.
“Whatever unity Erdogan secured after July 15 was gone shortly afterward because of all the controversial policies that he pursued,” she said.
“There’s this view that the government has done so much damage it’s going to take a generation to undo it, which creates a deep sense not just of anxiety, but despair.”
By Agence France-Presse
