Turkey discharges over 800 military personnel

ANKARA

More than 800 Turkish military personnel have been discharged from service as part of an ongoing probe into the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), Ministry of National Defense said Thursday.

A total of 820 Land and Sea Forces personnel were discharged, the statement said, adding that of this number, 648 were in custody.

The latest round of discharge includes commissioned and non-commissioned officers, but no generals, it said.

Thursday’s dismissals raise the total number of discharged personnel to 4,451, including 151 generals.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Aug. 17 said: "40,029 people have been detained and 20,355 remanded in custody, including police officers, soldiers, judiciary members, local administrators and civilians.”

Yildirim also said 5,187 people were still under investigation. So far, nearly 80,000 civil servants have been suspended from duty while just over 5,000 have been dismissed, he added.

Turkey's government has said the defeated coup, which left 240 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his FETO network.

Gulen is accused of leading a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.