Turkey sacks 10,000 more civil servants, shuts more media in post-coup crackdown

Turkish authorities have dismissed more than 10,000 civil servants over their suspected links with US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for orchestrating the failed coup in July.

Thousands of academics, teachers and health workers were among those removed through a new emergency rule decree published on the Official Gazette late Saturday while 15 media outlets, almost all of which reported from the largely Kurdish southeast, were shut down according to The Daily Star on Sunday.

Through the decrees, elections to choose a rector at the universities have also been abolished. President Tayyip Erdogan will directly appoint the rectors from the candidates nominated by the High Educational Board (YOK).

Turkey has formally arrested more than 37,000 people and has already sacked or suspended 100,000 civil servants, judges, prosecutors, police and others in an unprecedented crackdown the government says is necessary to root out all supporters of Gulen from the state apparatus and key positions.

Source: MENA