Turkey fires more than 4,000 civil servants, including teachers and police personnel

Turkey has sacked more than 4,000 civil servants including teachers, police officers and academics over suspected connections with terrorist organisations, a government decree stated on Tuesday (February 7).

The mass dismissal is the latest in the purge ever since a failed coup attempt in the nation last July. Reports state that a prominent professor who was opposed to the planned constitutional changes giving President Tayyip Erdogan greater executive powers, Ibrahim Kaboglu, was among the ones ousted in the decree.

The government's decree, which was published in the Official Gazette, also included sacking of court clerks, computer experts and librarians. Turkey claims that the coup bid in July was carried out by the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, though he has denied the allegations.

The dismissal of the civil servants has drawn heavy criticism on the social media from people and organisations. Main opposition CHP's lawmaker Sezgin Tanrikulu said on Twitter that the long-established universities of Turkey are being destroyed by the government. The government, however, has said the actions taken are justified considering the nature of the threat to the sovereignty of the state.

Reports state that the current government has already removed or suspended more than 125,000 people and formally arrested 40,000 people ever since the attempted coup to overthrow the Erdogan government. The failed attempt by a section of the soldiers resulted in killing of more than 240 people, mostly civilians.