In a meeting with journalists on Monday, Prime Minister BinaliYildirim noted that 59,467 public servants have been fired from their jobs as of August 1st, while the number of people removed from Turkish Armed Forced (TSK) remains at 3,073.
Yildirim said: “We will move not with the desire for vengeance but with justice.” Referring to a December 2013 corruption probe that his AKP has widely defined as a Gulenist effort to bring down the elected government, however,Yildirimstated: “We do not consider those who did not wake up after the events of 17-25 December as innocent…December 17 was when it was revealed that these (Gulenists) are a terrorist organization. Any support given to them after that date cannot be seen or treated and innocent.”
The probe had resulted in the resignation of three government ministers, bringing then-PM RecepTayyipErdogan himself under fire. AKP’s rhetoric against exiled cleric FethullahGulen and his followers had toughened significantly after the probes, with dramatic restructurings in Turkey’s police corps and legal system following shortly.
Yildirim’s statement is the first open suggestion from the Turkish government that its post-coup measures may reach further than those directly involved in the coup attempt. If the Prime Minister’s words truly reflect the planned scope of Turkey’s OHAL measures, any association with the Gulenist network in the past two and a half years may be considered criminal.